The Looming CIO Shortage - ' The Vision of the ' (
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The Vision of the 2010 CIO
We asked our interviewees to gaze into a crystal ball and offer us their vision of the CIO in five years. Conventional wisdom has always acknowledged the CIO's role in steering, managing, and orchestrating technology-related decisions. Our conversations with the senior executives revealed a different picture—one that we had suspected and one that received strong confirmation during the interviews. The change is precipitated, in part, by the increasing complexity and pervasiveness of technology and in part by the fact that business executives are becoming more savvy about technology.
Underscoring the point that the 2010 CIO would be engaging with the top management team not only on technology-related decisions, but also on strategy, marketing, production, and financial decisions, several interviewees saw a clear path from the CIO position to the CEO position. The executive search firms see the future CIO as being more accountable for the profitability of the company, for creating new products and services, and for being involved in product development, not just product support. This is particularly evident in high velocity industries such as financial services and retail where there is a significant level of real-time transaction processing.
One of the more striking findings from our interviews is the scope creep that defines the vision of the 2010 CIO. One executive went as far as to say that the CIO would be responsible for playing the role of a mini CEO without any of the direct control the CEO has. That is, the 2010 CIO would be increasingly challenged with monitoring and driving performance in business units through peers rather than solid line relationships.
Whereas the old conversation between IT and the business used to be about strategic alignment, by 2010 the conversation between IT and the business will be converged, meaning that in his industry firms cannot make any business decision without the involvement and participation of IT and without business executives having good knowledge about IT. By 2010, business and IT will be fundamentally entwined and interdependent.
Among the 2010 CIO responsibilities, several new activities will take an increasing level of attention and resource. Not surprisingly, several mentioned increased responsibility for compliance and risk management. The executive from a financial services company, whose company is expanding its overseas presence, emphasized the need to build and manage a global team. Finally, designing and implementing the right organizational models for governance surfaced as a key task for the CIO—a governance structure that is able to not only elicit and prioritize the right level of funding from the business for the various IT initiatives, but also actively engage the business as co-creators and managers of technology solutions. The point that going forward the CIO would have process responsibility, not just technology responsibility, was noted by several interviewees.
Overall, the 2010 CIO is envisioned to be more of a business expert than a technical expert, someone who can leverage technology to provide a competitive advantage, closely supported by a chief technology officer. The CIO will be more of a leader rather than a manager, and will have a notable presence in the business and in the top management team.
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