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One of the things that still causes some confusion with organisations looking to appoint their next technology leader is just what ‘CIO’ means.
Many consider the job titles of IT Director and CIO interchangeable, but actually, for those that take the CIO role to its full potential (and not all do), CIO means something really quite different.
A CIO is someone who helps realise business advantage from technology. A CIO is someone who considers anything with an on-off switch as part of his or her sphere of influence, regardless of whether that thing is directly under their control. CIOs are of course managers and operators – often with the help of a CTO, but they are also influencers, persuaders and business people. That’s why every year the proportion of CIOs who are part of their organisation’s boards has increased.
Part of the challenge with recruiting CIOs is that the way organisations recruit them still consider them ‘IT Directors’.
Why are we still just asking the same old questions around leadership, strategy & planning, financial management and operational efficiency? Since their role is so much more integrated in the business and critical for its success, why are we not asking them more?
A CIO needs to be able to create a highly performing enterprise, that is actually way beyond the enterprise. In-house expertise on key issues such as Bring-your-own-device (BYOD), Bring-your-own-wearable –device ( BYOWD), Digital, Big Data, the Internet of Things( IoT) and all the related issues of security, is absolutely critical for any business looking to thrive.
We think it is crucial for any new CIO to be able to articulate by referencing specific projects, that they have successfully led and delivered successful programmes integrating technology into all operational aspects of the business, ranging from sales and marketing, to finance and HR. More importantly, they need to be able to demonstrate the results of these projects by proving they had an impact on the business’ bottom line.
If you haven’t asked questions in these areas then you have probably hired “last year’s” CIO. The modern day CIO comes with this DNA in their make up, the future state CIO has digital in their veins! So if you want to hire today’s CIO, why are you still asking them about their ability to solve yesterday’s problems?
Ross Stacey has over 10 years’ experience within executive search, hiring CIO and IT leaders for some of the worlds most recognised brands. Harvey Nash’s CIO Practice is one of the world’s leading and most trusted advisors to CIOs, CTOs, IT Directors, Heads of IT and executive level IT Professionals. Our success is built on the quality of our network. We’ve grown our global CIO community for over two decades, and during that time we’ve established the industry’s foremost CIO survey which presents the views of more than 3,500 CIOs and technology leaders across twenty countries.
