Knowledge

The New CIO – Pillars of Knowledge

Sometimes it’s not what you do but what you know. In interviewing top CIO’s across the nation it was quickly clear that CIOs, in fact every leader in Information Technology (IT), needs to know more than their peers in an organization. Great, you may be thinking, isn’t the reputation of IT as filled with a bunch of tech geek know-it-alls bad enough? Now we need to literally know more than everyone else. At many levels the answer is yes. To be a successful CIO or IT leader you need to master both the technical content of your role and be more than conversant with business knowledge. Within the dynamic of an executive team the CIO needs to be guru and teacher on technical topics and an equal player on the issues that face the other functions of the business.

Technical or business knowledge, which is more important? Many of you may be thinking, well, I’m a technical person, I lead the technology team, I was screened for my technical skills, and therefore my technical knowledge is the most important.

If this was your vote you’re only one third right according to successful CIOs. To bridge the gap with your business partners, knowing the business has become more important. Let me give you an example from my own experience.

Recently I worked with a very large Information Systems organization. The former manager prided herself on having the finest technology team. She called herself a development manager and wanted to change her title to CTO (Chief Technology Officer).

She followed other consultants’ advice and kept her team challenged with every new technology available. In a time of programmer shortages she had no problem with staffing. As a superlative communicator she convinced the head of the organization of the value of her efforts and won direct sponsorship for her projects. A charming, charismatic person she was immediately welcomed by all. The increase in expectations was only matched by the height and breadth of her plan and commitments.

After the first year, she was universally disregarded and disliked by her colleagues. They did everything in their power to avoid her and her team. They began to pay for IT twice; once to her and a second time to create their own IT capability.

Why? This manager excelled in technical knowledge, she was a widely regarded innovator always at the leading edge. She was building web infrastructures before many useful tools were available. She regularly revamped her technology base to move to the newest technology. She was constantly on call to make presentations at industry events. Vendors called upon her to be a reference and articles extolled her vision and leadership.

At her direction new ground was broken, vast quantities of software was developed and very little actually got done. The cutting edge portal she produced was often off-line. New features could not be added with out substantial coding and even the simple task of adding new html required programming resources.

Her downfall was this desire to be recognized for creating new technology and using best of breed tools. She often spoke of her commitment to systems that worked for the business. But in the end when choices had to be made, the technically elegant options were selected over business results. Future flexibility and capability were selected over simplicity and current returns. New features got lower priority than new platforms. Reliability got lower priority over new features. In the end she was removed in a midnight coup. Most of her systems were scraped and replaced it with inelegant turnkey solutions.

The lesson: if you need to work the cutting edge of technology work for a firm that produces these technologies not one that has to use them.

When the topic of technical knowledge was discussed with successful CIOs they consistently acknowledged its importance. But they all returned again and again to the importance of business knowledge. Many took a certain, quiet pride in that they had come from business backgrounds as varied as marketing or finance and had clearly mastered the technical requirements of their positions. They did not want to be in the position of competing with their partners on business subjects. As Pat Anderson, CIO of Lockheed Martin's Space Systems Company says, “ You never want to tell the business what they do or don’t want. Your job is to listen to what they have to say and then provide help and guidance.” But to succeed all the CIOs said that they must understand both business processes and technology to succeed.

The mix can vary. As Peter Kools CIO of SchoolPop noted, the size of your organization makes a difference. In a startup the CIO must be very technical. In larger firms you can manage indirectly. For a start up you must be more hands-on. You have to work with your vendors tightly and be much closer to each technical choice. The larger the organization the more important business knowledge becomes.

In every organization large or small the following priorities hold true. You must be knowledgeable enough to:

1) Align with the priorities of the business

2) Identify how current technical resources can be used to meet those business goals

3) Evaluate and value the relative merits of technical investments, vendors and tools

4) Communicate the role of technology in achieving the business’ objectives

For David Thompson of CIO of Peoplesoft, you have to be more than just a partner with the business. As he says: “You have to be integrated, part of the business team. You have to in there offering your experience and leveraging technology to help the business succeed.” . He echoes the sentiments of many CIO’s when he says. “You’re at the table and to keep a seat at the table you have to offer your advice. It is very easy to be a silent partner but that is a dangerous place to be.” David earns his seat through mastery of both the technology and business requirements.

For Steve Hannah, CIO of Knight Ridder, a key part of his success is his work as an educator. Steve works as part of a highly distributed, decentralized organization. Each newspaper in the chain makes independent investment choices and IT consistency is impacted by this structure. But Steve has moved the entire organization towards standards and higher performance. One key tool in his kit is education. Quietly and consistently Steve takes on the challenge of keeping the Knight Ridder executive team and all many Publishers informed about the use and need for technology. In his own words:

“It is my job to explain to the company why technology is important and why it is not just a cost. It is my job to teach business continuity from a business process standpoint. It is my job to teach key basics and why they are important, net security, databases. To teach the things we (technologists) all take for granted.”

Steve succeeds in this mission by speaking in the language of the business. As he says. “A problem we technologists have is that we speak in acronyms.” He avoids this and works in small discussions and presentations on key topics regularly. He keeps it interesting and pertinent to the person he is speaking with. This teaching happens everywhere and all the time. It can be in the hallway, over coffee or on the corporate jet. Always the information is made relevant to the business partner by linking to their goals and measures.

Your Business Orientation – A Self-Test

Answer the following questions as coldly honest as possible – score the answers and see how your Business Orientation ranks.

1) How many projects have you sponsored in the past year that you thought were technically exciting?

2) How many of your business colleagues do not know the basics of network security.

3) How often in the past year did your vendors ask you to be a conference speaker for them?

4) How many days has it been since you last had an extended informal conversation with a manager from marketing or accounting?

Total up the answers. If you scored more than forty, I would start looking for work as a development manager in a technology firm. For scores 20 to 39, there is hope yet. Get out and spend time in the business. Question your own motivation for each of your current projects. If you are primarily the company’s chief technologist this may not be a sustainable position. You will need to move to the business side quickly. Look at your team, you may need to hire in experts will deep technical skills to keep the organization on top of emerging products. Let them take up the expert role as you expand your role and business credibility.

For those of you scoring under 19 you already understand the need to go to where your business partners are standing. You understand that they cannot or will not come to you. Meeting them where they are, adding their business knowledge to your knowledge base will allow you to do more, achieve more and enjoy more the role of a CIO.

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