From IT Head To CIO

Post the ‘Industrial Awakening’ in India, organisations had a different work culture and the IT requirements were simple and subtle. The rate of change in terms of IT adoption hasn’t been very quick, but if we take a look at the last decade, IT has added new meaning to its name. Previously, the IT head was mainly responsible for managing the IT infrastructure and developing the applications as per the business requirements, which were provided by the businesses. After the introduction of the CIO in the hierarchy, we saw a transformation within the IT department. The CIO brought with him the energy and capability of making IT a business enabler.

The Transition From IT Head To CIO

When you come to the C-level position, the level of expectation increases and you need to be innovative and change your work style for better results. When you become a CIO, you not only have to contribute from the top to the bottom of the organisation but also do your work in a different and new way. Being a CIO is not about just looking after the infrastructure and managing it as a supportive function head but this role brings to you a chance of becoming a business enabler.

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A CIO Needs To Be A Strategist

A successful CIO is the one who understand his business very well and who predicts the business requirements accordingly. I am being little prejudiced by saying that senior CIOs- who have been in the business from a long time, have understood the business processes very well and they have learnt to strategise their domain expertise and can very well manage their business processes with rich experience and technical knowledge. And with the blend of this knowledge and experience, it is extremely easy them to drive the business to the next level and that if a CIO fails to understand the business, he will just be a care taker of the IT infrastructure.

At present the role of CIOs has changed drastically from just being an IT head to becoming a business driver. They have understood the fact that they need to be different in order to add business value and bring growth to the organisation. The young breed of CIOs need to understand this very well, that by just having sound knowledge about technology will only restrict their innovation for driving business.

Why Is There A Need For A CIO?

Managing an IT infrastructure is not a big deal today, because lot of people are available from outside or organisations can assign a small team to manage the technical aspect of technology and information security. But with the presence of a CIO in the system, technology and business go hand in hand.

At present, in most of the organisations there are two different sections one which manages the IT infrastructure and second team which develops solutions and innovates new technology for business. A CIO’s responsibility is to manage both these teams.

Roadblocks For CIOs

Some of the major challenges that CIOs are facing is the fixed mindset of the people. In the 30 years of my career, I have frequently come across people who fail to explain and understand the business requirement of the organisation. Most of them think that it is the IT teams’ job so let them take care of that, why should we interfere? But ever since the introduction of the level of CIO in the organisation the IT team can speak to the CFO or CEO directly and make their job easy.

The position of the CIO has leveraged business and prospered IT by making the team’s voice more audible to the higher decision makers in the organisation. But, at times, CIOs don’t get the time and liberty to discuss the IT requirement and they have to push themselves to interact with people in order to discuss the business requirement. And after the discussion, CIOs have to prepare the documents and again have to wait for validating those documents and run around people for approval. So for now, CIOs should also learn how to prove their point and get things done quickly.