Helen Mumford, the new European head of analysis and research
organisation GartnerGroup believes the role of IT is changing and
the chief information officer (CIO) has every right to be chief
executive officer (CEO). There is nothing currently going on in
business that is not either enabled by or dependent on technology.
“IT is central and pivotal to business,” she said. Five years ago
it was fine for a CEO to know very little about technology, not
take very much interest in IT, and give it to the finance director
to look after. Now, Mumford said, “IT is the difference between
success and failure for organisations. Therefore, it is the
difference between success and failure for the CEO and he cannot
afford not to know about it.” This, said Mumford, raises the issue
of whether individual CIOs have changed their competencies, their
attitudes and skills and management processes at the same rate as
the demands on their jobs. “Those that have changed are central to
their organisations,” she said.
Mumford believes CIOs need to turn their attention away from
risk management because businesses today are focused on revenue.
“Shareholder value is about growing market share but IT has
historically been deployed for process improvement and cost
reduction as in business process re-engineering.” She notes that
the profession of IT is concerned with methodologies, standards and
rules, which is all about reducing risks. However, Mumford
explained, “Every time risk is reduced the revenue opportunity
reduces too. IT has not been employed for revenue generation.” The
CIO has the right to a leadership position she said, but to get
there they have to stop thinking about risk and start thinking
about opportunities.
They also need to have exactly the same appetite for risk as
their organisation she warned. “It is not the CIO’s job to bet the
business. That is what the CEO does, but decisions made around IT
are business-type decisions and this is why the CIO needs to take
risks.” As IT becomes strategic to the business, Mumford said the
CIO need not worry about losing control of IT spending.
Because IT is so critical to an organisation other areas of the
business are inevitably becoming interested in it. For example, she
said, “Many e-business initiatives are run by the chief marketing
officer or co-owned by the CIO along with someone else in his
organisation.” One of the biggest risks now facing the CIO is not
having an IT team with the right skills in place. Mumford said the
skills problem has two elements. First, there are not enough IT
professionals. Second, those people in IT may not necessarily have
the right skills. “Skill requirements are changing so fast that
someone highly skilled in January could be out of work by July. Old
HR policies just won’t do.” Her advice is simple: “The CIO tends to
be entirely clear on his approach to attracting the right people,
retaining them and retraining when the appropriate skills are not
in place.”
Mumford said the CIO and IT managers need to understand the
activities they provide which add value to the business. IT
activities concerned with innovation and revenue generation can
deliver shareholder value. “If I did not have enough staff,” she
said, “I would ensure that the people I do have were focused on the
highest value activities. This is a real mental shift for the IT
department.” Mumford has clear views about using temporary IT
workers to meet specialist requirements. While this may prove
expensive for the time the contractor is used, it is less costly
over a 12-month period than employing a permanent member of staff.
A key benefit to the business is that using contractors allows IT
departments to keep fresh, up-to-date, and stay ahead of
technological trends. “With contractors natural selection will
occur. People who do not have the right skills will not be
employed.” In the IT department staff can, meanwhile, become less
specialist and more generalist. “They become experts in the
business context, understanding the business environment rather
than the technology,” she added.
They become hybrid managers, relationship managers and business
analysts. Their role would be to manage the interface between IT,
the business and the specialists. “The key differentiator for such
people won’t be in their skills but in the way they think around a
subject because this will enable them to continue to add value and
innovate within the business,” said Mumford. She believes that, as
the role of traditional IT staff changes, CIOs need to look beyond
traditional IT skills when staffing. “I’m amazed at the proportion
of adverts in the appointment pages of computer journals that ask
for specific knowledge and skills.” Hardly any ask for business
attitude. “I would not recruit on the basis of three years of
C++.”
Her advice is simple, “If I was a CIO recruiting staff I would
wish to determine the applicant’s interpersonal skills, their
open-mindedness.” The applicants for IT department vacancies, she
said, should be the “can-do people” who don’t suffer from “not
invented here syndrome”.