Although the notion of the hybrid or dual-role CIO has been
around for at least a decade, the creation of such positions is
only now starting to become a trend.
Although bestowing several job titles on heads of IT is still
not the predominant model - and is unlikely to become so any time
soon - Gartner says, nonetheless, that the phenomenon is here to
stay.
Barbara Gomolski, a research vice-president at the analyst
company, says, "Probably less than 20% of the CIOs who I work with
have multiple roles and multiple titles, but if you think back only
a couple of years, it was under 5%, so it is a growing trend."
The most common additions to the CIO moniker include head of
business transformation, head of business process change or
management, head of service delivery and even head of supply chain.
In some companies, CIOs are also being called chief technology
officers (CTOs), and in others, the role of CIO is divided between
two people.
Tim Jennings, a research director at the Butler Group, says, "We
are starting to see organisations split IT roles into CIO and CTO,
which means that they are splitting IT into its supply and demand
sides."
In this instance, the more traditional IT role is undertaken by
a CTO, who is an expert in delivering technology and this "is where
the majority of current CIOs have come from and still are". The
true CIO, on the other hand, is "really a specialist in the
application of technology to the business, especially in the
context of business processes and improving their efficiency".
The latter often - but not always - has no IT degree, but is
instead likely to possess an MBA, although they have generally done
at least a stint in IT, sometimes as a result of having been
involved in a large project with a significant technology
component.
A common reason for bringing in such a non-technical person from
the business side, meanwhile, is because the relationship between
IT and the business has become strained, and so the goal is to have
the CIO act as a bridge between the two.
Cathy Holley, a partner at CIO head-hunter firm Boyden, "We do
not generally see senior managers actively going for an IT role,
because it is tough and a lot of people fail or do not last long.
It is hugely visible, and in some organisations, the position is
used as a scapegoat. There is also the fear factor as it is a
specialist area and so not that many people want to dabble in it as
they cannot see what is in it for them."
Nevertheless, she points out that it is important not to get too
hung up on job titles because they tend to mean different things in
different companies.
"If you look at the content versus the title, it is almost
random. Everyone wants to be called a CIO as it sounds more
elevated, but the real point is whether you are steering and
shaping the company strategy and whether you are on the board or
not. You really have to look beyond the title," Holley says.
Fewer than 5% of IT heads are in this situation in the UK,
however, and Holley says, "I could count and name them." This is
mainly because the creation of such influential positions and the
addition of a second business-related responsibility is usually
linked to the organisation's attitude to IT.
Gomolski says, "If you are in an organisation where running IT
is perceived as a cost of doing business and the aim is to do it as
cheaply as possible, you are not usually going to be in the type of
company that will allow you to take on additional roles."
The type of company that will, however, generally shows one or
more possibly overlapping characteristics. The first is that it
will tend to see IT as an enabler, a differentiator and a tool to
introduce innovation into the organisation. IT will also generally
be embedded deeply into the business rather than simply being
viewed as a standalone function.
The second likely trait is that the company will have outsourced
much of its technology infrastructure and require someone at the
top to manage the portfolio of services, whether they are delivered
by a third party or in-house.
The third attribute is that the organisation may well be going
through a period of business transformation, process
standardisation and change, and will see IT as a catalyst for
this.
One organisation that has created just such a dual-role position
on the back of its business transformation initiative is
Siemens Financial Services. The company provides services
ranging from sales and investment financing to fund management and
insurance, but about 15 months ago decided to embark on a
wide-ranging programme to improve its business processes. The aim
was to increase efficiency and boost the quality of its service
delivery.
It was at this time that Steve Mason, the then head of finance
also took over the role of head of IT. "Our business had evolved
over a long period, but we needed to do a major systems upgrade,"
he says. "That gave us an opportunity to think more carefully about
how to organise people and processes around IT, so it meant me
getting involved from the outset to ensure that the IT project
started and ended with them."
This led the organisation to create a cross-functional team
called the Corporate Transformation Group, which included project
managers, process change experts, compliance specialists and
technical staff.
"We are trying to avoid traditional silos such as IT and finance
with a project manager sitting to the side because the aim is to
create a common vision across all of those silos in order to break
them down and use people across different functions," Mason says.
"So we have created a cross-functional team with different skills,
which is important because you have to recognise that there is a
time when finance knows best or IT does or whatever. But it is a
balancing act."
The secret to managing such a wide remit, however, is to have
strong reports in place and to ensure that "people are aligned
behind what you are trying to do". This means that learning to let
go and delegation are key skills as is programme rather than
project management.
"It is no different to any other management job in that you have
to have the right people around you as well as a sound human
resources strategy, with a commitment to develop people. But the
relationship with your direct reports also needs to be robust
enough to enable you to question what people are doing," Mason
says.
Being responsible for both finance and business processes is
"quite useful", however, Mason says, as "you find that IT
overarches them both," and all of them contribute in a synergistic
fashion to providing more effective processes for the business.
"You can argue that the solutions are partly technical and
partly process-based, but there is also compliance going across all
of these areas. And once you start thinking about it at that level,
things end up being less fragmented because everything is put into
context," Mason says.
Specifically on the technology side, meanwhile, he believes that
a good head of IT has to understand the key business issues in
order to decide where technology can assist. "So it is about the IT
function using technology to solve business problems rather than
technology being the be all and end all," Mason says.
For those CIOs with an IT background wanting to move into such a
dual-role position, however, the most common traits are those of
being proactive and seizing the initiative.
Brinley Platts, chairman of CIOdevelopment.com, says, "The
notion of talking to the right people, and saying that you would
like this opportunity, and this is what you would do if you got it,
does seem to open doors. Few CIOs are offered an expanded
opportunity by the business as there is always someone else. So in
every case I have come across where CIOs have an extended mandate,
it is because they have been proactive about getting it."
This means that it is crucial for CIOs to not simply sit behind
a bunch of systems with flashing lights, waiting for someone to ask
them to get involved with the business. Instead, it means getting
out and about and engaging with staff and management at all levels,
not least to better understand business priorities and to look for
tangible ways to help the organisation run more efficiently.
Another thing to bear in mind here, however, is that most people
tend to be promoted from inside the business rather than from
moving to a new employer because the issue of personal credibility
is important. "People are most likely to trust you more if they
have seen you in action, so you are better off trying it with your
current organisation. Then, once it is on your CV, it is easier to
move elsewhere," Holley says.
Another key to success is to focus on developing "soft"
interpersonal and communication skills rather than "hard" technical
skills. "It is about demonstrating leadership and emotional
intelligence and relationship-building. A sense of humour looms
large because it is about being clubbable at the top level," says
Platts.
This implies that CIOs not only need to be commercially astute,
but also have to be able to add value - in a way comprehensible to
the business - across the whole range of subjects discussed at
board level. Having presence and a dash of charisma also does not
go amiss.
But although all of this may sound like a tall order, the gains
- if you can get it right - can be high as such expertise is in
demand, and is likely to remain so for some time to come.
"There will still only be a minority of companies employing CIOs
with multiple roles for the next few years, but that could change
into the longer term, depending on how they decide to use
outsourcing. It is a growing trend though and is likely to continue
to be," says Gomolski.
Cath Jennings