The pace of change in IT these past few years, with expectations for the fast delivery of new tech-based initiatives and cloud-based services shifting resources away from in-house IT groups, raises the question: What makes for an ideal CIO in this environment?
I put this question to Ames Flynn, who serves as senior vice president and CIO of Extended Stay America, which has over 8,500 employees and operates 629 hotels across the U.S. and Canada. It does this with a relatively small IT group — only 38 people — because Extended Stay America has taken advantage of cloud resources and other forms of outsourcing, including its hotel help desk. The strategy enables the group to be lean and nimble, Flynn says. And his team is heavily weighted toward people with skills that speak to strategy, roadmaps, collaboration, architecture, engineering, enabling end users and business analytics, as opposed to day-to-day IT operations.
Leading such a group requires the CIO to transition out of the pure technology side of things and be a leader focused on both the IT group and the rest of the organization. “You have to be able to relate to diverse groups of employees because IT is pervasive throughout the company,” he says.
The ability to collaborate and be a facilitator is likewise important, leveraging people on the team who have more knowledge than you in various areas rather than trying to dictate or provide all the answers yourself.
Flynn says being an effective networker is another good trait. “And you certainly have to be a visionary and have strategy skills," he adds. A CIO has to be thinking a year or two ahead of the rest of the company to incubate and pilot new technologies such that they’re ready when the company needs or is prepared to implement them.
This focus on business instincts is a change from years past when CIOs tended to come up through the IT ranks. Now it’s better to have a diverse range of job experiences that somehow touch IT. For his part, Flynn started with a background in marketing and served in functions ranging from supply chain to customer service and e-commerce, among others. At one point, he was responsible for digital strategy, new online business development and customer facing IT all at once for Michael’s, the arts and crafts retailer.
“All those experiences help because IT is now so cross-functional and mainstream in the company,” Flynn says. “That’s the shift.”
A few years ago we saw a trend where companies were moving their CFO or an operational person into the CIO role, but Flynn questions the strategy in many cases. But he thinks the CIO job still requires “good depth in the discipline of IT, really understanding architecture, and navigating the vast choices of tech talent, technology and vendor partners.” As a result, “we’re starting to see more CTO-types become CIO,” he says.
The current focus on all things digital is also raising the profile of the CIO. Whereas once CIOs were essentially “order takers,” now “they have to help lead the strategy and define the initiatives because it’s complex and cross-functional. The business user doesn’t usually articulate the ‘how’ nor do you want them to architect the solution,” Flynn says. “It’s brought the CIO into the mainstream,” and onto boards of directors. “Companies are starting to go deliberately after CIO types to be on their boards vs. just traditional marketing and finance people,” he says. “And you see CIOs report to CEOs.”
Which is exactly the setup at Extended Stay America. It’s also reflected in Flynn’s title, which includes the senior vice president moniker. “CIO used to be a VP level position in a lot of companies,” he notes, with the CIO reporting to the CFO or COO. That defines the CIO role as not quite as strategic or perhaps lacking in financial and business operations rigor, he says. “For the most part, now I see the CIO as an SVP or EVP level role because it’s either on par with the other C-Suite positions or maybe one level down but in many cases still reporting to the CEO.”
Some forward thinking companies that understand the value of vision, strategy and technology as essential parts of the customer value proposition are even considering the CIO for the CEO role, he notes.
Asked what shortfalls CIO candidates tend to have, Flynn points to a lack of aggressiveness, governance discipline, interpersonal skills, and intense focus on the customer. He references prognostications from analyst firms that in 10 years, chief marketing officers will command more IT budget than CIOs.
“It’ll only happen if CIOs let it happen,” he says. “It’s not a political turf war, but a matter of a partnership with marketing and peers agreeing as to who is more skilled and capable of driving IT – and that should be the CIO with the appropriate experience and skills required for today’s technology initiatives in a digital world. You have to be direct and transparent with your peers and willing to push back when they’re proposing projects that don’t have an ROI or a clear charter or a plan.”
IT leaders by nature want to support and be “pleasers,” he says. But it doesn’t bode well for the overall organization when IT takes on too many priorities and doesn’t stay focused on the initiatives that drive the most value to the organization.
