Three Cheers for the CIO
For the last 10 years CIOs and their potential to drive digital innovation has been eclipsed by the trending C-suite role, the Chief Digital Officer (CDO). CIOs have often been asked to do more with less, accused of being strategically removed from the business and relegated to the role of ‘keeping the lights on.’ Their importance diminished while CDOs emerged as the saviors, given the digital reigns and responsibility of helping position the company to thrive in the digital future. A recent study shows that 21% of large public firms employ a Chief Digital Officer, who usually reports to a senior executive -- sometimes the CEO -- and are given extensive responsibilities to lead the digitization and transformation of their organizations. Along comes a pandemic and look who emerges as the super-stars — the CIOs! Many have seamlessly pivoted their organizations to becoming 100% virtual in short order and are driving digital change at lightning speed to ensure that business can continue to create a ‘new normal.’ So, for a long time CIOs were knocked for not being change agents, now it’s time to pay compliments and recognize how they have embraced change, prioritized business reimagination and remained accountable for the results.
CIOs have had to accelerate digital transformation within their organizations due to the pandemic. This has necessitated review of legacy systems and long-standing data integration issues and the fast-tracked the need to evaluate a wide range of new, powerful technologies/platforms. New tech platforms have enabled seamless connectivity and access from anywhere while also instituting high-levels of cybersecurity and privacy protocols. Forrester called this ‘waging a three-front battle’ in its “Predictions 2019: Transformation Goes Pragmatic:” As CIOs have had to become comfortable leading in this initial wave of transformation, they must also look to embrace the next wave of technology — specifically automation and customer experience -- via reimagining and upskilling their teams. This wave presents a shift in management of operations through DevOps, security automation and emerging platforms to enable the rapid development of scalable development to support business priorities.
As these technology waves and innovations come to fruition, it will be incumbent on CIOs to remain strategic leaders focused on determining how to embrace these innovations to position their organization for success. They must become co-creators and understand their organizations capabilities and gaps. This will enable them to ensure they remain progressive, conversant in the latest technologies and able to rapidly develop/deploy solutions to reach the market. Most importantly they must continue to be the strategic voice within the C-Suite to guide them on how technology investments and transforming business operations can tie to business priorities and drive revenue.
