How The CIO Can Gain CEO's Mind Space

Gartner recently released the CEO and senior business executive survey of over 220 CEOs in organisations across 25 countries.

The survey results clearly indicate that CEOs head the ‘Innovation Advancement’ agenda of their organisation, a more purposeful way to gain competitive advantage and cut costs in times of economic stress. The survey further reveals that most CEOs still regard their CIOs as itinerant specialists. This definitely comes as a surprise in this age of disruptive digitisation where technology can play a decisive role in the innovation game. So how can CIOs make their presence felt in the CEO’s innovation advancement agenda?

In conversation with Biztech2.com, Mark McDonald, Group VP and Head of Research, Gartner Exec. Programs, brings to the fore what a CEO expects from his/her CIO and what it takes for the CIO can make it to the CEO’s core team.

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What expectations do the CEO and the CFO have from the CIO?

To start with it’s imperative for the CIO to understand the goals and objectives of the CEO and CFO, which are different. They come from different places, and therefore the CIO needs to measure their message and approach.

In general, CEOs are concerned with the long term growth, reputation and success of the organisation. They expect the CIO to know how to manage technology and keep technology enabling the strategy rather than inhibiting growth. CIOs who work with the CEO on the basis of how to execute the strategy, win in the marketplace and achieve greater speed and scale are better able to capture and keep the CEO attention.

CFOs are concerned with the enterprise’s ability to generate current earnings and meet its projections/commitments to investors. This naturally makes them focused on issues of the budget, expenditures and projects. IT can be difficult for CFOs to appreciate in the abstract as CIOs often ask CFOs to invest in technology based on the promise of future business benefits. That represents a high risk proposition for a CFO, particularly given the poor benefits realisation track record of many enterprises. Hence, building a relationship with the CFO requires first demonstrating that you are not wasting the company’s money, and more importantly that the CIO and business leaders are willing to commit to and achieve positive changes in business performance – those changes drive earnings and commitments which are at the top of the CFO agenda.

Why do CIOs often fail to earn a place in the CEO’s core team?

Frankly many of those arguments about the power of technology, its strategic importance, etc. fall flat in the eyes of fellow C-level executives who have a tough time understanding the connection between technology and changes in business performance. Ask yourself the following questions:

Who gets together when the enterprise makes a major decision? Then, ask why only those are the people that get together.

The answer to the first question highlights the C-level team that works both formally and informally and that is where the greatest influence and authority rests. In many companies that top team includes the CEO, CFO, Head of Sales, Head of Operations and Corporate Council (Head of Legal) but not the CIO.

Now, look at the second question, why are those people getting together? The answer is simple, because each person gives the CEO an answer to a question that really matters to the company. Here are the questions each role generally answers:

The Head of Sales answers the question about top line revenue and revenue growth — how much money will we make?The Head of Operations answers the question about profitability, abased on the cost of operations — how much money will we keep?The CFO is there to answer the question, which of the two (sales and operations) is right and what can we commit to financially?The Corporate Council, head lawyer, is there to make sure that the decisions and actions are legally feasible — can we do that?

Now ask yourself, what question would the CIO answer if they were invited to this meeting? Certainly it’s not about the strategic value of technology.

So, what according to you, are those questions that the CIO can answer to build influence in the CEO’s core team?

We found that CIOs do answer three important questions in these situations. The first is around the issue of Speed — how fast can we put plans and decisions into action? The second is Scale — how can we bring scale efficiencies to the actions or plans? The final question is Choice — if we go in this direction, how does that limit or create future options. These are the production functions of IT.

So, if you are looking to build deeper relationships and engagement with the C-level, think about the questions or issues where you have expertise and can contribute to the answer — those will be the areas where you can build influence. They are also most often the areas where technology will drive strategic value.