CEOs Push For Social: But Are CIOs Ready?

CIOs are fighting a perpetual battle for influence. It started out with CIO vs. CFO, and to add to it, now there’s the CIO vs. CMO war. The point is not that the CIO is at loggerheads with other C-Suite peers; it is that new age technologies are increasing the risk of the mantle passing on from CIO to the other C-level executives. Social is a key technology area that is increasingly empowering the CMOs, unless the CIO rises and shows that he/she understands, and is duly equipped to deliver the business vision the marketing team has envisaged.

Is Your CIO Socially Active?

Though not a scientific theory, the CIO’s capability to drive the company’s social media agenda can be considered, to some extent, directly proportional to how active he/she is socially. It may not be too long before their C-level peers, partners and customers view their social activeness index as a measure of their worthiness in handling the social platform for business.

If one were to go by the above logic and combine it with a study conducted by harmon.ie to identify the most socially active group of CIOs in the Fortune 250 and Global 250 companies, not many CIOs would fall in the readiness bracket. As per the study, only 10 percent of the CIOs had ‘social credentials demonstrating that they understand what it takes to drive business transformation by using social tools to help flatten hierarchies, speed up business processes, and boost efficiency and agility through collaboration’. The formula used takes into account criteria such as the strength of each CIO’s LinkedIn network, re-tweet frequency, socialmention.com scores, blog reach, citations by other influential bloggers, and Google+ influence.

If that’s the picture globally, then CIOs’ social activeness index in India would almost amount to being non-existent in comparison to their global counterparts. And, one doesn’t need any survey to validate that. Given the very fact that among the Top 25 CIOs in the same survey, with the exception of Google CIO - Benjamin Fried, none stood anywhere close to the top ranker Oliver Bussmann (Ex SAP CIO and now the Group CIO of UBS), itself rests the case.

New Age Socially Aware CIO: Hear And Get Heard

Even as there is hardly anyone to give Bussmann competition, he is increasingly being seen by many as the face of the emerging tribe of new age CIO who is not afraid to speak his/her mind. The new socially aware CIO likes to hear as well as get heard, and make the most of the social wave around to further his/her cause, both personally and professionally. Taking it a step further, then leverage the platform to create new business opportunities for the enterprise. While currently low in numbers, this tribe is gradually progressing in the direction of becoming mainstream.

Bussmann uses social media via blogs, Twitter updates, RSS feeds and LinkedIn updates to keep in touch and interact with his team, customers and industry experts. “I always try to be in the driver’s seat,” says Bussmann. And, by that he means staying on top of his social network, gathering ideas from those he follows, and maintaining a flow of outgoing messages to those who follow him. “If you have a network, it will help you in your day-to-day business life,” he adds.

This emanates from his personal belief in the social media platform. “I personally believe the future executive must be more open, transparent and engaging to succeed long term. Since IT has always been hard to understand and follow, using social technologies makes it easier to communicate with the IT organisation and the rest of the company. As the CIO, you have to understand how social media can keep everyone in touch,” says Bussman when asked about his main motive, professionally, for spending time on social media platforms.

Starting Point: Self

From Bussmann’s example, the perfect place to make the start is ‘self’. Exploring the social platform at a personal level the CIO can get a good inside out peek which outside in cannot afford - perhaps using it as a means of promoting self-growth and preservation.

The picture of the CIO as a reticent persona quietly working in the background has long been broken, replacing it with an image of a person in the foreground, speaking the language of the business and shaking off the old image of a technology nerd. But, a socially aware CIO takes his/her communication prowess a notch higher through networks built around personal and professional interests. Needless to say, CIOs need to continue on a steep learning curve that they have already embarked on.

Closer home, Arun Gupta, CIO of Cipla, who is arguable among the most socially active CIOs in the country, is a perfect example of a socially aware CIO. A prolific writer, he maintains his personal blog: Oh I See (CIO Inverted) , and regularly updates it every Monday. Thereby, maintaining a constant channel of thoughts and idea sharing. Social media is not only the perfect platform for him to keep in touch with his professional contacts, but it also helps him share his thoughts with them and gain their prompt feedback.

So what about these platforms drives him to be professionally active on them and make the most of the experience? “Comments, feedback and critique from others over social media platforms have helped me become aware of my development opportunities. Social media networking helps me build my personal brand and helps expand my professional circle with new connections,” says Gupta.

Right Channel For Right Objective

According to Bussmann, every channel has its own amenities. Twitter, for instance, is a perfect distribution channel to hint at blogs, articles etc. “Very valuable to drive a message,” he says. “Writing your own blog helps you to share your thoughts, your ideas and in best cases set an agenda. Reading RSS feeds, quick checking pulse helps to stay at the highest level of information.” CIOs can also look at social media as a platform for learning – learning not only from their colleagues about the latest in technology, but also gaining an insight on the thoughts of the people they interact with.

It would be far-reaching to say that the CIO’s personal uptake of the social platform will automatically make him/her qualified to lead the company’s social media strategy from the front. But, it will definitely be a step to instil the management’s confidence and comfort in the CIO’s ability to do so. So CIOs, it’s time to get onto the social bandwagon, ‘tweet’ your thoughts and ‘like’ those of your peers; ‘blog’ your ideas and ‘share’ them with the world at large. As Jay Baer, the coauthor of ‘The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social’ says, “Activate your fans, don’t just collect them like baseball cards.”