Emerging Role of CIO

(as a Strategy Execution Officer)

Presentation by
Akbar Husein,
Balaji Balasubramanian,
Kartik Mahadevan,
Prateek Mehra,
Saranya Ranganathan CA2 - IT Governance
Chief Information Officer
‘CIO ? Career Is Over’.
– It’s an old joke, which might have raised a smile thirty years ago, but which is
now as outdated as flared trousers and brick-sized mobile phones. And even in
the old days, it had a bitter edge to it.
Evolution of CIO Role
A Historical Perspective – Where has the focus turned over the years…

2008 – Competitive
2000 – Mobile Strategy, Business
Devices, ERP ROI, Process
Improvement,
1990 – ERP CRM, Optimization, Globalization,
SCM, BI, Business ROI, BI
Security
1980 – Data eBusiness, Y2K,
Explosion, Internet
Personal
Computers,
1970 – First Personal
Appointed. Productivity
Financial
Systems, Order
Processing
The CIO Title Grows
What is in a Name?

A lot, especially when "chief" is in the title.

Today, more heads of IT sport the CIO title
than ever before, while the old-fashioned
"director" has fallen out of favor.

2004 2007 2008

CIO 49% 50% 60%
CTO 3% 6% 4%
VP / IT 13% 13% 11%
Director 29% 23% 18%
Other 6% 8% 6%
Agenda
• What are the emerging archetypes for CIOs and how do they spend their time?
• How do senior non-IT executives think CIOs should allocate their time?
• Does every company need an Strategy Execution Officer (SEO) to ensure implementation
and effective use of enterprise platforms?
• What is the appropriate scope for an SEO role?
CIO Archetypes (The State of CIO in 2007)
Business Leader Turnaround Artist

Operational Expert
Operational Expert Innovation Agent

 Business Leader. Priorities are aligning IT and business goals.

 Operational Expert. Primary mission is to cut costs.

 Innovation Agent. Focus on ITs ability to drive new business initiatives.

 Turnaround Artist. Risk-taking agent of change.

 Business Leader
Straddling the business technology divide, this archetype relies on communication and
collaboration to get the job done.

Put a premium on understanding business processes

Aligning IT and business goals

Use technology to improve business processes, and controlling costs

Focus on budgeting and compliance

Interacting with CXOs and business people

Support managing IT crises

Consider the ability to lead and motivate staff

Innovation Agent
Strategist who drives business change–and leaves the details to others.

Considers IT should proactively envision business

opportunities

Members of their company’s executive committee

Stress Strategic thinking & planning is an important

personal skill

Have worked in sales or marketing

Operational Expert
Rolls up their sleeves and meets the challenges of the business head on.

Managing IT crises

Share IT ROI accountability and cut IT cost

Improve IT talent & Operations

Project Management & Execution

Deliver IT Systems on Time & Budget

Turnaround Artist
Relishes the challenge of fixing broken IT situations.

First and foremost as agents of change

Shortest tenure of all the archetypes

Biggest paycheck of any archetype

Influence change in others

Directly accountable for IT ROI

CIO Types (The State of the CIO in 2008)
Function Heads

Transformational Leaders

Business Strategists

 Function Heads. Focused on running the IT organization, achieving IT operational

excellence and providing reliable, effective services.

 Transformational Leaders. Focused on creating change for their enterprise through

process transformation and a close partnerships with business operations.

 Business Strategists. Focused on driving strategy for competitive advantage through

activities that face across the enterprise and externally.
Functional Head
Transformational Leader
Business Strategist
CIO’s Allocate Time Across Role Types

12%
51%

37%

Distribution of CIO Role

Current and Future Distributions
0 100
25 50 75

Current Future
Distribution of Distribution of
CIOs CIOs
CIO’s Spend Most of Their Time with Staff

Large
Time Spent Small Companies Mid-Size Companies Companies

IT Staff or team 38% 41% 39%

Company's Executives 22% 21% 23%

Non-IT employees 20% 18% 17%

IT vendors/service providers 10% 11% 11%

External partners/customers 9% 9% 9%
Business Strategists spend More Time in Business

Function Transformational Business

Time Spent Head Leader Strategist

IT Staff or team 42% 39% 32%

Company's executives 20% 23% 27%

Non-IT employees 18% 18% 17%

IT vendors/service providers 11% 11% 10%

External partners/customers 8% 10% 14%

Agenda
• What are the emerging archetypes for CIOs and how do they spend their time?
• How do senior non-IT executives think CIOs should allocate their time?
• Does every company need an Strategy Execution Officer (SEO) to ensure implementation
and effective use of enterprise platforms?
• What is the appropriate scope for an SEO role?
CIO - Staying Power
• The average job tenure has risen steadily since 2004, though it is more than a year
shorter at large companies than at small and midsize companies.

• Average tenure in current position is*

5 Years, 20 Days
*Source: The State of CIO 2007
Roles to play
Roles to focus
• Chief Integration Officer
• Chief Innovation Officer
• Chief Irritation Officer
• Chief Identity Officer
• Chief Inoculation Officer
• Chief International Officer
• Chief Investigative Officer
• Chief Information Officer

Roles to avoid
• Chief Inertia Officer
• Chief Impediment Officer
• Chief Inefficiency Officer
CIO – Report lines

13%
7% CEO
41%
COO
23% CFO
Corp. CIO
16%
Other
Expected Competencies
CXO Expectations from CIO
 Strategic Orientation
 Results Orientation
 Market Knowledge
 External Customer Impact
 Collaboration and Influence
 People and Organizational Development
 Change Leadership
 Team Leadership
Agenda
• What are the emerging archetypes for CIOs and how do they spend their time?
• How do senior non-IT executives think CIOs should allocate their time?
• Does every company need an Strategy Execution Officer (SEO) to ensure implementation
and effective use of enterprise platforms?
• What is the appropriate scope for an SEO role?
Strategic Execution (Problems)
 90% organizations fail to execute well-planned strategies.
 Many brilliant strategies fail due to poor execution.
 Insufficient information to employees about strategy and not providing enough
resources.

 Three Reasons Why Good Strategies Fail:

Execution, Execution, Execution...

 Two things to become success:

 Ability to make good decisions

 Ability to implement those decisions.

People + Plans = Strategic Execution

Strategy Execution Officer
 Senior executive accountable for
 Definition,

 Design,

 Implementation of Enterprise platforms,

 some cases, use of a firm’s Digitized Process Platform.

 In most organizations, the CIO is assuming this role, shifting the IT organization from
enabler to leader.
SEO Role – Enterprise Process Platforms

Enterprise IT & Ongoing

Process Operations/
Governance Continuous
Improvement

(11) (4)
Project Design &
Implementation

(10)

Designs Builds Platform Leverages

Platform Components Platform

Source : MIT Sloan 2008- Numbers reflect how many of 12 SEOs studied defined each responsibility.
Responsibility 1: IT and Process Governance

 Ensure clarity among senior executives about platform design.

 Coordinate demands for enterprise change projects, most of which involve

IT implementations.

 Establish priorities for change projects based on multiple criteria:

Organizational readiness
Contribution to platform
Ability to use platform
Expected benefits

 Work with senior executive team which either

makes investment decisions or approves SEO recommendations.
Responsibility 2: Project Design/Implementation

 Ensure disciplined, effective project methodology.

 Engage all key stakeholders early and often.

 Provide expertise on process design.

 Provide oversight and/or support of change management.

Responsibility 3: Ongoing Operations

 Provide enterprise services, usually as a shared services organization.

 Accept accountability for continuous improvement of the platform.

 Ensure that the enterprise is driving value from the platform.

Agenda
• What are the emerging archetypes for CIOs and how do they spend their time?
• How do senior non-IT executives think CIOs should allocate their time?
• Does every company need an Strategy Execution Officer (SEO) to ensure implementation
and effective use of enterprise platforms?
• What is the appropriate scope for an SEO role?
SEO - Two Main Responsibilities
 To ensure the effective execution of organization’s vision and strategy
 To leave the organization more sustainable then when he joined.

SEO Scope
 Developing and overseeing the components of the core business-process platform
 Accepting a leadership role in a company's IT governance
 Brokering opportunities for driving value from the platform
 Establishing an organization and incentives for sustaining the platform.
Keys to Successful Execution
 Develop a model for execution
 Choose the right metrics
 Don't forget the plan
 Assess performance frequently
 Communicate
CIO
• ‘CIO ? Career Is Over’.
– That’s hopelessly out of date.
– Maybe a more modern version might be…

• ‘CIO ? Careering… Into Opportunities’.

Acknowledgements
• The Future Multi-dimensional CIO, Jeff Wacker, EDS, USA
• The evolving role of CIO, David Henderson, IBM, UK.
• Convergent thinking among the C-suite why integration and collaboration spell big
opportunity for CIOs, IBM, USA.
• The Enterprise of the future, IBM, USA.
• The State of the CIO 2007 & 2008 Reports, CIO Magazine, USA.
• The Role of the Government CIO, GSA Office of Citizen Services and
Communications, USA.
• The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution, Harvard Business Review, USA.
• In the age of agility, CIOs are agents of change and business transformation, Korn/Ferry
International, USA.
• All Roads Lead to the SEO, Jeanne W. Ross and Peter Weill, The Wall Street
Journal, USA.
• IT Governance Class Materials, Pallab Saha, NUS, Singapore.
by Akbar Husein, Balaji Balasubramanian, Kartik Mahadevan, Prateek Mehra and Saranya Ranganathan

Thanks