A CIO's Brand Equity

When I connect with my friends through online social media, I observe that people generally do not comment on blogs or contribute enough. I just wonder with so many IT professionals and leaders around, why do we face this issue? Without two-way communication, a good blog or content will lose its sheen as we have failed to enrich it or have a thought-provoking debate around it. Though a lot of people read the content it ends up being mere passive participation.

I spoke to few IT thought leaders to understand why people do not actively participate. One reason could be that people shy away from expressing their views and opinion in public. There are other reasons like being busy or general lack of interest - which I think could be an excuse. But most importantly, in my view, lack of awareness of personal brand equity is one of the fundamental reasons that prevents people from contributing.

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Brand equity, in general, represents consumer sentiments towards the brand. If the brand equity is high, consumers are more likely to buy the product and hence create a distinct shareholder value. While we talk about brand equity of products and organisations, we miss the opportunity to discuss ‘personal brand equity’ of individuals. The future of business will be more online. People will buy and sell products online, and also hire online, based on how much impact and influence the candidate has created, which further translates into his individual brand equity.

The time was never more opportune time for CIOs and IT leaders to start thinking of developing their personal brand equity as it is now. Today, they are expected to be more of thought leaders than mere technical stewards. This requires them to gain the mind space of their peers, counterparts, management team, CEO, etc and have a share of voice and influence in areas that concern them and their ecosystem around. All this, ultimately, boils down to building personal brand equity.

Taking this to the next level, one may wonder how individual brand equity helps the organisation. Impact, communication and social associations create an ecosystem around individuals and this has a definite bearing on business. For example, your presence in CIO circles can be leveraged by your organisation’s business to expand its reach and presence. CIOs have to drive back good perceptions for their effectiveness and these perceptions can be driven internally as well externally. If a lot of people discuss your thought leadership with your CEO outside your organisation’s boundary, a perception is generated which helps you drive your vision inside.

Most often IT is considered ineffective because business has considered IT as a follower and not a strategic partner and this often related to how CIOs have carried themselves with business. This translates into a lot of problems for the rest of the IT team and is a kind of a vicious cycle which is hard to break. Personal brand equity of CIO and IT team can help overcome this.

Personal brand equity can be built by following means:

Awards: There are awards for various contributions IT leaders make. Target few awards every year and try to win them every year. This contributes not just to your brand value but also to your organisation’s brand value, and finds its way to company balance sheets under corporate governance.

Professional Networking: Become active on professional networking sites and join groups of your interest, especially linked to your profession. Engage in discussions and make it interesting with your view points. Your contributions will be viewed by people in the industry and you will be noticed for your expertise on the subject.

Forums: Make yourself visible in forums and participate in discussions in your community. Try to contribute as much with your knowledge so that you are viewed as an expert in your domain. Never miss an opportunity to be at a round table discussion or meet or present something which can be of interest. Also engage the audience and encourage tough questions. Sometimes doing something against the conventional wisdom is well appreciated.

Blogs: Everyone can form a good opinion on something or the other in the respective domain. After spending years on a particular field, we all gain a lot of experience. There is nothing better than sharing that experience with the industry which can benefit from it. There is a lot of theoretical matter available on the Internet but practical information that comes from experience is rare. If you are unable to write, try and comment on content.

Social Cause: Join a social cause. Each one of us wants to do something for the society but there should not be a gap between desire and execution. Either join an NGO or start an NGO for a cause of your choice. Meet people and create a good social circle which will help you serve your purpose.

Guest Lectures: Students mostly miss the opportunity to interact with someone outside their academic circles, who can bust the myths and give them real-world insight. So, professional institutes are always on the lookout for industry experts who can guide the students. Your contribution here will not just help institutes and students, but the association also enables to build a community and circle around you as the word-of-mouth communication about your depth of subject knowledge spreads.

However, in following all this don’t forget the fact that undertaking these activities just for the sake of it won’t take you anywhere. Your value is generated by the strength of your knowledge and skills you demonstrated during the interactions. And, these can be easily noticed. Over a period of time the photograph and name of the individual becomes recognisable. The number of people getting impacted and commenting on your blog, and memberships of your communities represents loyalty. And eventually, the amount of buzz you generate because of your impact and influence through your endeavours depicts the value associated with it. Putting everything together, we can see it makes a business sense for the employers as well as the society.

To say the least, the future of leadership will revolve around impact and influence which we create around ourselves. IT leaders are well placed to do so as they are more connected than any other of their C-level peers and can leverage the available opportunity and platforms to establish themselves as a brand.

While the brand value of the organisation traditionally helped to establish the individual equity, in my view, individual equity can be enhanced to contribute to organisational brand as well. And, I believe that in the future organisations will look at this as an important metric from leadership hiring perspective. The ability to create communities from today’s social world and impact them with thought leadership will definitely make sense for businesses.