Think about it: does anyone besides the CIO understand the enterprise business process end to end better than the CIO?
It’s an important question to ask when new research shows that some CIOs are still trying to get a seat at the C-Suite table at all. Ironically, getting to an enterprise-wide view of the business that most CIOs possess already is something I’ve seen other C-Suite executives struggle with over my entire career.
You Can’t Wear Your Big Hat Until You Earn One
At my current company, we like to talk about bringing your “Big Hat” to the executive table. That’s shorthand for your enterprise sensibility and strategic skill set. Yet I’ve worked with executives who are stuck in their own silos and are focused around their own specific business processes. When did you last meet a manufacturing executive who could speak intelligently about product development, marketing, or ecommerce? A lot of CXOs gathered around the executive table are there because of their functional expertise, and that’s nothing against them. But for the whole business to be successful they’ve got to leave the minutiae of their functions at that executive meeting door.
I would recommend that you challenge them to move outside their comfort zones. “How many times have you been out to see a customer this year?” If I weren’t in front of customers, I wouldn’t know how they are thinking about technology enablement for the business. Wouldn’t it be important for a marketer or product development executive to get his or her own hunches verified or corrected? Another example is to ask executives to lay out the entire end-to-end business flow for the company. Well over half will draw you a very simplistic, high-level diagram. That’s a dirty little secret among a lot of executive teams, but it’s one we should talk about because it can lead to shortsighted decisions and makes it hard to come up with transformational ideas that drive business growth and value.
The New Career Path: Up, Across, or Both?
Another data point from recent research I’ve seen is that the CIO is becoming a less-desirable title to aspire to, perhaps because a talented IT professional can expand their career options horizontally to work in Marketing, Logistics, or other aspects of the business.
I would support this view because I’ve seen people with IT backgrounds thrive in digital marketing environments. In fact, I know CIOs who could easily play a COO or even a CEO role without a problem. That’s because being a CIO today is really about being the guardian of the enterprise business process. In fact, if you’re looking to succeed in any technology-driven executive position today, you’ve got to get your head very deep into the business process side of it. Whatever you do should always be about understanding the business first, then applying technology second.
For some CIOs that’s a paradox. We are supposed to keep-the-lights-on and the business running while being fluent about every process and business initiative that would benefit from technology. Which means just about all of them.
That’s why as a CIO you need to have a team who can take the day-to-day and run with it. It’s not enough that they are operators, however; they have to think strategically as well. One of my managers is incredibly technical and can go toe-to-toe with any tech engineer on our staff but also has a great bedside manner with our CEO and Chairman. That’s a big challenge of IT second-in-commands. Many are unable to convey the vision in ways executives and the business will understand and communicate to their direct reports. That’s key, because no matter where your career takes you in the enterprise, you’ve got to understand the business issues first and more importantly how to communicate the changes required while mapping out a path on how to get there.
Brian joined Pharmavite, LLC (Makers of Naturemade Vitamins & SOYJOY Nutrition Bars) in June 2010. He is responsible for determining the strategic direction of the company’s IT solutions, infrastructure and technology operations, as well as the company’s customer and consumer-facing technologies. Prior to his role at Pharmavite, Brian was VP, Enterprise Systems, Infrastructure & Operations for Zenith Insurance – a national worker’s compensation company headquartered in Woodland Hills, CA. Brian was also the Chief Information/Technology Officer for Nextleft, Inc. - a digital strategy, branding and technology services firm founded in 2000 and located in Los Angeles, CA. Brian spent 14 years as a technology consultant with Andersen Consulting’s (aka Accenture) worldwide technical services group rising to the level of Associate Partner while based in Chicago, IL.
