In this week's edition of news for IT pros, we review the essential leadership skills for CIOs and new research on security.
Skills for CIOs to drive digital innovation
A recent survey of more than 1,200 business and technology leaders conducted by Accenture found that 91 percent of respondents “believe innovation is most successful when IT is integrated throughout the innovation process.” Yet, as David Quinney of Accenture points out in a CIO op-ed this week, “CIOs are often tasked with implementing other people’s ideas, not being part of them.” In order to become more integrated into innovation strategy and execution, Quinney says that CIOs must be a part of every stage – from idea origination, to facilitation, to delivery – and they must be willing to help the best ideas rise to the top no matter where they come from.
Gartner identified six leadership personas that it says will help CIOs identify barriers that may be standing in the way of their ability to achieve digital business innovation. Among them, Gartner says that CIOs must be “educators to amplify digital savvy in the C-suite and board and to upgrade the digital DNA of the wider enterprise.”
Intel Corp. Chairman Andy Bryant also touched on this point in a Q&A in the Wall Street Journal this week. He said that CIOs can be much more effective in building relationships and demonstrating the value of IT if they work on their communication skills. Rather than lead with the budget pitch, Bryant advises CIOs to say, “First, I’m going to educate you. Here is what we do. Here are the problems we’re solving. Here are some things we’re worried about. Here’s the magnitude of those.”
Three new studies on IT security
2016 Vormetric Data Threat Report – Cloud, Big Data and IoT “Security is still an afterthought when it comes to adopting new technologies, often taking a back seat amidst the rush to stake a claim in a promising new market,” said Garrett Bekker, senior analyst, information security, at 451 Research and the author of the report. “We found that enterprises are storing sensitive data in just these types of environments – 85 percent in cloud, 50 percent in big data, and 33 percent in IoT. Many have strong concerns about the security of their data as a result.” [Security News Desk]
Have we been hit by hackers? No idea, CIOs admit A survey by endpoint security software firm Carbon Black found that, “85 percent of CIOs surveyed admitted that, yes, their organization's cyber defenses are more reactive than proactive, waiting until after a breach in order to take proper defensive action.” Further, “organizations believe it would take an average of two whole months to actually uncover that a breach has occurred.” [ZDNet]
CIOs admit to wasting millions on security technology that doesn’t work “In a survey of 500 CIOs, commissioned by Venafi, respondents acknowledged they are wasting millions of dollars on layered security defenses that ‘blindly trust’ keys and certificates – unable to differentiate between which keys and certificates should be trusted and which shouldn’t.” [Information Age]
