The declining role of the CIO

There's a lot of talk in recent years about the declining relevance of the CIO role, and tongue-in-cheek jokes about CIO standing for "Career Is Over". As IT becomes more commoditized and touches every aspect of business, more companies are choosing to split IT responsibilities into "digital" (often led by an executive with a non-IT background) and "technology" (run by an IT leader but focussed on back-office systems and operations), with no common reporting line other than the CEO. There are advantages to such a split, but there are also real down-sides. Here are some thoughts (admittedly from the biased perspective of a former CIO).

The fragmentation of the IT group

I speak to many CIOs who are frustrated that they have no control over the IT systems being implemented by their colleagues in the "digital cowboys" team, or as tacitly sanctioned "shadow IT" within other non-IT groups such as Marketing. Within non-IT splinter teams there often ends up being a lack of proven IT practices such as:

• Best-practice development processes
• Strong vendor management
• IT service management disciplines
• Cyber security practices
• Enterprise architecture

On the flip side, the IT team is often seen as bureaucratic, slow-moving and lacking in business focus (the stereotypical "office of NO"). Relationships between the groups become frayed and trust is lacking. The result of this divide is an organization that builds up technical debt and enterprise risk, which often isn't visible until some years later, when it has grown to significant proportions and some triggering event has exposed it.

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Why does this happen?

It's easy for us as IT leaders to blame the people ultimately making these structural decisions - Boards and CEOs - who often lack direct IT experience. However - and this opinion may make me unpopular with many of my CIO colleagues - I find that often a CIO has been the unwitting architect of their own downfall.

Many of us developed into the CIO role through a highly technical background, and dealing with colleagues from completely different backgrounds (such as sales and marketing) can be outside of our comfort zone. Coupled with natural resistance in many companies to engaging IT (often based on painful previous experience), it is all too easy to fall into a mode of focussing "inwards" on the aspects that are within IT's natural purview (keeping the lights on, delivering projects).

Unfortunately this leaves a vacuum of leadership on utilising IT to take the business forward, and this vacuum will naturally be filled by others.

Credit: YouNique Designs (Amazon)

So what can be done about this?

In my view, IT needs to earn its "place at the table" through genuine engagement with business stakeholders and proven ability to add value, rather than relying on policy and authority ("you have to go through IT because that’s the rule"). This is a transformation journey that takes years of effort to build a service-oriented culture, business partnering and leadership capabilities, and strong peer relationships. It starts with small steps before IT can truly be seen as a natural partner for all business initiatives, and takes constant effort to maintain.

Of course all of this is in addition to the day-to-day work of delivering projects, maintaining reliable operations and providing end-user services, in a landscape that keeps growing in complexity. This is why the CIO is just about the toughest role in an organization (again, I may be somewhat biased!).

What does “good” look like?

If this effort is successful, the resulting structure is an IT group that is responsible for implementing and operating all IT systems for the company, partnering closely with product owners who sit inside the groups that utilise the systems to run their business processes and who willingly and naturally work with the IT group.

This allows the IT group to utilise its unique expertise in planning, designing, sourcing, developing and operating applications, providing the best service to the organisation in terms of quality, security, cost effectiveness and sustainability.

It also puts the IT group into the unique position of being able to "cut across the silos", with the perspective to detect and call out gaps in business strategy or overlaps in implementation, and the opportunity to provide leadership in resolving these issues.

I've been very fortunate to have seen first-hand how well this can work, and I'm grateful to have been supported by talented and passionate team members who proved the value of IT expertise, as well as supportive peers who were willing to "give IT a go". I hope that, by sharing these experiences and talking about this issue as an industry, we can ensure that IT continues to deliver sustainable competitive advantage to organizations, and we continue to have great IT leaders in empowered roles that are set up for success.

If you're an IT leader and you're unsure why there is "shadow IT" in your organization, start by asking the executive team what they really think of the IT group, why, and what they need it to do. You might pick up some valuable tips to help your organization on this challenging but rewarding journey. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have.