The Digital CIO’s Innovative Leadership

One of the most Appropriate Interpretations of the "I" in the CIO's Title is Chief Innovation Officer.

IT Management is a strange animal, in that the capabilities are there, the data is there - but the motivations are often confused. Technology drives changes nowadays, but IT is often considered the function slower to change with “controlling mentality.” IT tends to measure itself against trivial things IT considers important but are often less important and impactful through the business lens. To rebrand the tarnished IT reputation, CIOs as IT leaders, how to practice innovative leadership to catalyze business growth and improve the overall organizational capabilities and maturity?

The Digital CIO’s Innovative Leadership

• What are the most Important Skills for the CIO of the Future? IT is at the cross-road, shall it continue to be run as the cost center to keep the light on, or should it move up the maturity level –to become the value creator or even a game changer for the business? If so, what are the most important business skills for the CIO of the future? What are the important technical skills for the CIO of the future? What are those synthesizing capabilities or unique skills which can differentiate a modern digital CIO from a traditional industrial CIO?

• Five Characteristics of Next Gen CIO: IT is on the way to transform from a cost center to value creator, so does IT leaders, CIOs are no longer good enough to be tactical IT managers only, they have to play multiple leadership roles and wear different hats to deal with business complexity today. So, What're the characteristics of next-gen CIOs as effective business leaders?

• The Changing Role of CIO: With the consumerization of IT and other emerging digital technology trends such as Cloud, mobile, social and analytics, the role of IT is at the inflection point to go digital. IT shouldn’t be just satisfied with the surviving mode, it has to be thriving, and CIO roles are also changing from an infrastructure IT manager for 'keeping the lights on' to a wise business strategist/solution advisor/consultant to create value for the organization and make leadership influence across functions and beyond.

• Three Tips for CIO to be Chief Innovation Officers: Modern CIOs have many personas indicated in the magic “I” of CIO title, Chief Innovation Officer is one of the most pertinent roles, because so much business innovation these days is enabled by technology, a good CIO with their finger on the pulse of technological advancement or information insight can provide many ideas on how new tech and abundance of info could create fresh business opportunities. CIOs are uniquely positioned to drive business innovation because of their vantage point in digital transformation. But how can CIOs build a solid innovation agenda, and play such a new role more effectively?  

• CIO’s Innovation Dilemma: Today’s CIO is one of the crucial leadership roles facing significant transformation, Being a Chief Infrastructure Officer to align IT operation with business is no longer sufficient since the rate of changes is accelerating at the age of digitization. CIO is facing the modern innovation dilemma: Just keep the light on when the users are pushing the legacy IT to the breaking point? Or be the change agent to expedite the transformation to reach an innovation tipping point by pulling people, process, and technology seamlessly to achieve a higher level of IT maturity.

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