Two views of CIOs: network janitor or executive tutor?
Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, opined recently that CIOs have evolved to become one step above Building Maintenance workers in today's corporations, charged with cleaning up spills and enforcing policies sent down from the legal department. George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research, on the other hand, believes that CIOs must take on the role of teachers to CEOs, imparting the necessary technology knowledge for the business to innovate instead of stagnate. Said another way, CIOs must now choose whether to be network janitors or executive tutors, abdicating the strategic decisions to those above.
Sadly, I think the network janitor point of view is all too true. For example, how did it ever come to be the CIO's problem to prevent employees from downloading music or surfing pornography at work? Sounds to me much more of a line management and human resources issue, especially given corporate liabilities around illegal activity and hostile work environments. But because CIOs "control the network" (truly a myth in most organizations, but one that is widely shared), they get stuck with the job of cleaning up organizational behavior. Yet this activity contributes nothing to the competitiveness of the business nor to the satisfaction of customers.
The role of CEO tech tutor is similarly true, but not in a good way. Too often, CEOs become enamored with the latest technology they read about in Business Week, ignoring the fact that it may be completely at odds with the five-year technology roadmap the CIO's staff just spent six months preparing. Yet while the CIO is tasked with grafting on the CEOs pet project to the plan, the CEO will simultaneously cut the infrastructure investments necessary to make it work well. When the CIO protests, the CEO simply claims that the CIO just doesn't understand business.
So what's a CIO who didn't sign up to be a janitor or a teacher to do? Well, why not try marketing (you probably should have seen that coming, since you're reading Blackfriars Marketing)? Want to get out of being the network enforcer? Create two network service offers at two different prices: one with media inspection and enforcement and one without. Let the line managers pick the type of service they actually want to pay for. You may be surprised how accurately reflecting the costs of a locked down environment can change line manager's minds.
Want to get senior executives to listen to your vision of technology instead of what they read in Business Week? When was the last time IT held an internal trade show where they marketed the things they could do for the business, including strategy, services, and business benefits? Such presentations take less time to prepare than a five-year plan, yet if they are properly done, they garner more executive attention. And the process of having to sell IT's strategy and services concentrates both the CIO and the staff on what they should be doing -- and what they should just let die.
Network janitor and executive tutor are two possible titles for today's CIO. I'd argue that IT marketing is a more important skill than either -- and is less likely to lead to the worst of all titles: unemployed.
Sadly, I think the network janitor point of view is all too true. For example, how did it ever come to be the CIO's problem to prevent employees from downloading music or surfing pornography at work? Sounds to me much more of a line management and human resources issue, especially given corporate liabilities around illegal activity and hostile work environments. But because CIOs "control the network" (truly a myth in most organizations, but one that is widely shared), they get stuck with the job of cleaning up organizational behavior. Yet this activity contributes nothing to the competitiveness of the business nor to the satisfaction of customers.
The role of CEO tech tutor is similarly true, but not in a good way. Too often, CEOs become enamored with the latest technology they read about in Business Week, ignoring the fact that it may be completely at odds with the five-year technology roadmap the CIO's staff just spent six months preparing. Yet while the CIO is tasked with grafting on the CEOs pet project to the plan, the CEO will simultaneously cut the infrastructure investments necessary to make it work well. When the CIO protests, the CEO simply claims that the CIO just doesn't understand business.
So what's a CIO who didn't sign up to be a janitor or a teacher to do? Well, why not try marketing (you probably should have seen that coming, since you're reading Blackfriars Marketing)? Want to get out of being the network enforcer? Create two network service offers at two different prices: one with media inspection and enforcement and one without. Let the line managers pick the type of service they actually want to pay for. You may be surprised how accurately reflecting the costs of a locked down environment can change line manager's minds.
Want to get senior executives to listen to your vision of technology instead of what they read in Business Week? When was the last time IT held an internal trade show where they marketed the things they could do for the business, including strategy, services, and business benefits? Such presentations take less time to prepare than a five-year plan, yet if they are properly done, they garner more executive attention. And the process of having to sell IT's strategy and services concentrates both the CIO and the staff on what they should be doing -- and what they should just let die.
Network janitor and executive tutor are two possible titles for today's CIO. I'd argue that IT marketing is a more important skill than either -- and is less likely to lead to the worst of all titles: unemployed.
Technorati Tags: Chris Anderson, CIO, Forrester, George Colony, Marketing, CEO
posted by Carl Howe at
9:51 AM
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