THE EXCEPTIONAL CIO

Who do you call an exceptional CIO?

What qualifies a CIO to be called exceptional?

The acronym CIO could represent several meaning but in this context, CIO refers to Chief Information Officer. Some organisations prefer to address their CIO as the Information Technology Director but whichever name is used, they are both concerned with the ICT aspect of an Organisation. CIO  is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals. Generally, the CIO reports to the chief executive officer (CEO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) or Chief Financial Officer (CFO). 

It must also be mentioned at this point that the roles of both Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) are commonly blurred. CTOs are concerned with technology itself, whereas CIOs are much more concerned with its applications in the business and how this can be MANAGED. More specifically, CIOs manage a businesses’ IT systems and functions, creates and delivers strategies and policies and places great emphasis on the customers internal to the company. In contrast to this, CTOs place emphasis on the external customers to the organization and focuses on how different technology can make the company more profitable. 

CIOs form a key part of any business that utilizes technology. In recent times, it has been identified that an understanding of just business or IT is deficient. CIOs are needed for the management of IT resources as well as the “planning of ICT including policy and practice development, planning, budgeting, resourcing and training”. In addition to this, CIOs are becoming increasingly important in calculating how to increase profits via the use of ICT frameworks, as well as the vital role of reducing expenditure and limiting damage by setting up controls and planning for possible disasters. 

The Chief Information Officer of an organization is responsible for a number of roles. Firstly and most importantly, the CIO must fulfil the role of business leader. As a CIO must make executive decisions regarding things such as the purchase of IT equipment from suppliers or the creation of new systems, they are therefore responsible to lead and direct the workforce of their specific organization. In addition, the CIO is required to have strong organizational skills’. This is particularly relevant for a Chief Information Officer of an organization, who must balance roles in order to gain a competitive advantage and keep the best interests of the organization’s employees. CIOs also have the responsibility of recruiting, so it is important that they take on the best employees to complete the jobs the company needs fulfilling.

In addition, CIOs are directly required to map out both the ICT strategy and ICT policy of an organization. The ICT strategy covers future proofing, procurement and the external and internal standards laid out by an organization. Similarly, the CIO must write up the ICT policy, detailing how ICT is utilized and applied. Both are needed for the protection of the organization in the short and long term and the process of strategizing for the future.

In this fast paced 21st Century, things are fast changing and Organisations are more concerned about cutting down cost, i.e using little resources to achieve more and there is a growing demand on CIOs from the management and board members to ensure that the Organisation run on a low operational expenditure (OPEX). This is mainly due to the recent globalisation and the ''China-lisation phenomenon'' taking place. Organisations are facing tough competition from newer companies with new innovation, ideas and creativity. Also, the topsy turvy economic situation of the modern day is not helping the situation. Companies are fast filing for bankruptcy and liquidation. 

With all said above, the major question is; What Makes a CIO exceptional?

As depicted in the image used in this post ( a superman swagger kinda move); an exceptional CIO is one that can carry out such a move in front of his bosses (the CEO, CFO and COO) when the Organisation needs urgent help. The cartoon character superman is one who saves people (the world at large) when all chips seem to be down.  The superman always show up at the last minute when all hope seems lost, when it seems everything is fast reaching a dead-end and superman does not fail to deliver in all of his missions.

The moment your bosses see you as their SUPERMAN then you are EXCEPTIONAL and one of the easiest and quickest way to be exceptional is to help your Organisation in cutting down cost; both operational cost and capital cost without compromising on quality.

Ironically, many CIOs see the ICT department as a money spender. They feel the ICT department is the bedrock, core and foundation of the Organisation as every other department depends on the IT department to effectively and efficiently carry out their work. But in actual sense, the CIO should start seeing the ICT department as a money spinning department; one that creates more money for the Organisation and this is best done by cutting down the cost used in running the department and such saved cost can be redirected to other critical areas of the business. There are several ways and areas in which cost can be reduced drastically and one good area all CIOs must explore is in the printing area. Organisations today spend 1-4% of their revenue on print-related costs. Yet by actively managing overall printing efforts, you can reduce recurring spending on document output by 13-37%. 

Thank you very much.