Head: CIOs need new skills to prosper
New skills are needed for CIOs to ride the changes that
will transform IT, according to a CIO Connect survey.
The report says that CIOs should be confident of thriving as the
pace of change in IT quickens and that forging effective new
relationships both outside and within the business will be
vital.
For the past three years, says CIO Connect, being a CIO has been
extremely pressurised. While other parts of enterprise have enjoyed
a mini boom, CIOs have been called to task to spend less money,
provide functionality to the business "on demand" and at the same
time deliver secure "end-to-end" service across whole corporations.
Such pressures have reduced the IT function to that of cash cow and
strained relationships with IT suppliers with whom, according to
the survey, three out of four CIOs still feel that their efforts to
build strategic relationships are simply not reciprocated
Des Lee, founding director of CIO-Connect, argues that the new
role for the CIO is that of "change warrior" and that fulfilling
this role requires a totally different approach and a new set of
skills. He comments: “If we are to examine the new skill
requirement for managing change, then of course you still need the
CIO's staple capability of analytical skills backed up with a good
grounding in technical knowledge. But here is the rub: to be a good
change manager, you also need excellent communication skills and
political nous. Sadly, these qualities have never been top of the
list when recruiting a new CIO.”
In addition, Mr Lee says that all of the CIOs interviewed
believe that significant IT-related opportunities have yet to be
exploited in their organisations. He believes that there is an
almost unanimous agreement that there is a real need to improve
relations with the business by adopting a "realistic two-way or
three-way by including suppliers" method of communicating with the
business, end-customers, suppliers and all who need to know.