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: whilst 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 skill set. 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 almost unanimous agreement that there
is 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.