From Group CIO To A Technocrat

 With changing technology landscape, needless to say the role of the CIO has also been evolving. From being a ‘business enabler’, CIOs has moved on to become ‘business drivers’- depending upon the nature of the business. As India Inc is fast acquiring businesses worldwide, the role of the CIO has become more widespread with Group CIOs handling CIOs of various group companies. Thus they no longer have to understand one business but multiple businesses in order to get a handle to be true ‘business drivers.’

Gartner recently released a report identifying seven areas that CIOs must understand and act upon in order to effectively work with the board. Mentioned below is one of the areas of the intended CIO action.

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The Board Meets A Few Times A Year: The board meets once a quarter and perhaps holds a committee meeting once a quarter as well. Some boards may meet more frequently.
CIO Action: Focus on preparation during the time between board meetings. Assume you have little time to make your points if you have to review your progress on a board-supervised project. Concentrate on the point that the board directors need to know and provide reference materials. Make sure it is all in a business- and board-oriented context

The last line sums up the intended CIO action well. CIOs should present their plan well corroborated with materials that have a business parlance rather than technology terminology.

This not only applies for one group business but now after most big organisations becoming conglomerates and entering multiple businesses, it equally relate to the Group CIOs. More importantly, getting a quick grip on the nature of the business will help because most of the business expansion plans have to be delivered within deadlines to meet competitive pressures.

This point extrapolates well for the Group CIO who wears multiple hats handling IT of various businesses that the core group is into.

Successful CIOs Have High Business Quotient

The business quotient always tops the required skill-sets for Group CIOs, which is a quality (if not the only one) that will take them to the next level of management hierarchy or their desired career ambition. A sharp understanding of the business also graduates Group CIOs to be turnaround CIOs who are hired when a particular business conglomerate’s IT is directionless, helpless.

Heminder Ahluwalia, Executive Advisor, Gartner gives an exclusive account of one of his interactions with a newly joined CIO at a big Indian conglomerate, “The company’s IT was in a complete mess at that point in time. He came on board and his first task was to turnaround the organisation. He proved to be one of those turnaround CIOs.”

How he did it? The newly appointed Group CIO met all the people who directly to him , understood the business from inside out, got rid of the excess in IT and started outsourcing thus moving towards a lean IT organisation.

Some other steps included striking mega deals with big vendors. He renegotiated already existing deals thus saving costs. He took a laundry list of all the IT applications and started getting rid of all the redundant applications.

Ahluwalia bifurcates CIOs in India and finds that the best ones come from a business background. He observes “One set of CIOs completely stand out and outshine the other class of CIOs who have always been in one kind of engagement and have not been able to succeed in all these years”

One characteristic of the best-in-class CIOs is they come from a business background. They are visionaries and think long-term. Also, their Emotional Quotient (EQ) scores are high.

The ultimate nirvana for a CIO is to get the seat at the board with the upper echelons of the company and help make critical decisions. “What I have seen in India is that there are many of them who have come from an IT operational background. They are very comfortable being technology-centric and are more like a CTO. Most of the CIOs are in the fire fighting mode,” finds Ahluwalia.

 Shailesh Joshi, Head IT- Godrej Industries, who is also responsible for the IT for multiple Godrej companies says, “Almost 75 percent of my KRA and 45-50 percent of my team’s KRA is related to business rather than technology.”

He proudly mentions that Godrej’s top management is highly technology savvy, which provides a perfect operational platform for him. A Group CIO should know how every business operates as only then will he be able to guide the individual CIOs of those companies. Joshi says, “I have to keep myself abreast with the new happenings in the realty, manufacturing and retail business,” The Godrej group has interests in these businesses through its business entities viz., Godrej Properties, Godrej Industries, Godrej Consumer Products respectively.

High Business Quotient = Fast Problem Solving

It’s critical not to make the mistake of trying to measure the problems of all group companies with the same scale. “The solution to a typical problem cannot be the same for all group companies,” opines Sanjeev Kumar, Group CIO and Group President - Business Excellence, Adhunik Group of Industries.

For example, Adhunik Group of industries is into mining, power, steel, auto forging businesses. There are four CIOs who report to Kumar. Mining business has got different challenges such as the mining areas are in remote locations with poor infrastructure facilities in terms of road and Internet connectivity. There are very few service providers that have the network availability. Also, people managing the affairs in these areas are occupied in mundane activities. “In such a scenario, one cannot deploy a fancy system. The need of the hour is to help them in terms of how can they track mining activities, material movement, transportation, manage billing, etc. Essentially, something that will suffice their requirements should be deployed,” he suggests.

On the other side, the steel industry has to face the challenge of managing inventory, managing the truck movements, quality of output, customers, logistics, etc.

In the power sector, the challenge is to keep the generation equipments always on and keep them in a well maintained state. There is the aspect of power procurement agreements, distribution, and ensuring availability of fuel.

Group CIO To Be Technocrats

A panoramic view of the business also stretches the imagination of Group CIOs. Kumar says, “Group CIO’s ’thinking zone’ expands after being a part of the board meetings. He starts thinking in terms of M&As, funding for expansion, different areas where the company is trying to make in roads, etc.”

He further adds that usually CIOs tend to remain in their comfort zone. In response to any issue, they will always find a solution in technology. They will play the lever in hand because they are comfortable talking about it.

However for Group CIOs who are already far ahead in the evolution from being a purely technical person to a technocrat, they are well positioned to seamlessly integrate the halves of business and technology during M&As. Anil Khatri, Head - Global IT, Client Technology and Field IT, South Asia, SAP says, “The ability to seamlessly integrate acquisitions into the IT/ business strategy or to divest subsidiaries is important to avoid disruption. This is where a Group CIO can play a crucial role in maintaining an efficient IT governance structure that complements the organisation’s business goals while driving profitability,”

As Group CIOs transition into an ‘Evolution phase’ of becoming CEOs of the IT business of their respective conglomerates, while also handling the CIO office (CIOs such as Yogesh Zope, CEO- Kalyani Technologies and Alpna Doshi, CEO, Reliance Tech Services), they will have to move into an orbit of a ’technocrat’ rather than remaining functional CIOs. This asks for a skill of developing political acumen.

In tough economic times as companies go through a rough phase, there is a possibility of change in the top management and thus in power centres of the company as well.

Going back to the Gartner report, it also talks about how CIOs, (applies to Group CIOs too) should manage power politics.
Like All Human Organisations, Boards Have Their Share Of Politics:
As companies continue to navigate through uncertain economic times, the internal politics of the board surface as alliances form and shift. It is important to know who holds the power on the board. Is it concentrated in one shareholder? Is it shared among a group that votes as a coalition? Does the CEO hold more power than the board?
CIO Action: For CIOs who aspire to sit on a board of directors or to lead an executive team, knowing the power centres and how to influence them is a key skill. Those who are less ambitious may find it convenient to outsource all issues regarding politics to their CEO.