Office of CIO, challenges of the VUCA World

The CIO role is ever changing, or must I say evolving. Evolution is an indicator of being alive. It starts with the realization of the need to change, for the better. So, if as a business leader you get uncomfortable at the idea of being comfortable, you are right on the money. In this short article I am discussing some key focus areas of a CIO in this VUCA (Volatile Uncertain Complex and Uncertain) World.

Balancing act- Innovation & Operational Excellence

The office of the CIO (OCIO) at an enterprise is always tasked with ensuring business as usual (BAU) in the most efficient manner. At the same time the OCIO is also required to bring in innovation to do business and to make the internal operations further easier, effective, flexible, and efficient. It is not tough to imagine that for the CIO it is critical to strike the right balance between these two objectives.

To respond to this continuing challenge the OCIO needs a mix of professionals in niche technologies and those who can dirty their hands on a tech thrown at them. It must be a mix of depth and breadth of technology, a beautiful T!

If you observe carefully, you can see that the OCIO must wear a COO hat too, to run its office most efficiently & effectively.

Top Priorities

Current business challenges and organization’s objectives mandate the OCIO to focus on

·?????? Digital initiatives to continually improve customer experience.

·?????? Data & security risks through IT GRC (Governance Risk Management & Compliance).

·?????? IT & Business collaboration to deliver application modernization and keeping lights on for the business applications.

The first two above have been impacted immensely with the advent of AI and ML. Also, automation overall has been pervasive across not only the OCIO functions but also across the organization.

Over years the focus of the OCIO has moved from

·?????? Managing IT crisis

·?????? Vendor management

·?????? Cost/expense control

To

·?????? IT GRC

·?????? Operational excellence

·?????? Digital, automation, AI, and Analytics initiatives.

This trend must continue. OCIO must continue to be seen as a value center and never again as a cost center.

It is imperative that the OCIO decides its own KPIs & SLAs and aligns those with the organization’s objectives & strategy. ?

OCIO the Change Agent.

In today’s VUCA world an organization must embrace digital change & transformation with full heart. Change is never easy. We always need change champions and change agents. The CIO and the OCIO team must play these roles respectively. Instead of mandating a change merely with orders, the change needs to be driven through value demonstration and by being the coach and mentor for customer serving business units and the shared services. To achieve these goals, constant refreshers are required for the OCIO team.

OCIO team, that understands business and enterprise data.

To be an effective change agent the OCIO team must understand the core business operations, the enterprise architecture, customer landscape, and underlying data. By having cognizance of these aspects, the team can ensure the required quality of service (QoS) to business units and shared services thereby achieving excellent customer experience.

The big data scenario mandates the team to have necessary skills and tools to perform the process and derive the required intelligence.

OCIO team, that learns and evolves continuously.

The biggest skill that OCIO must look for when hiring is learnability. None of us can afford to be doing the work in the way that we started with. We must learn new technologies, processes, and practices. The only way to transform and embrace change is by being flexible. It is very critical to have a fine balance of “T” in the skill matrix. The CIO must have a sufficient learning and training budget for self and the team.

References

The CIO role: An enduring guidepost for digital innovation: Foundry and IDG, Inc. company

CIO Agenda 2024: Gartner

How CIOs Can Build IT Teams for the AI Age: HBR