The CIO’s Daily Responsibility

CIO is a leadership role who shall practice thought leadership to make positive influences and steer the business in the right direction.

Modern CIOs play different roles in their organizations, they are both the business strategist and IT manager; process innovator and governance champion; customer advocate and talent master; Overall speaking, the CIO is a leadership role who should practice thought leadership and steer their organizations in the right direction and makes positive influence; the CIO is a strategic role who needs to oversee the company’s information landscapes and make effective technology-oriented decisions. But more specifically, what’s the CIO’s daily responsibility?

Strategic planning and communication: The CIO's role is to ensure that the IT group is enabling and catalyzing the business,  their daily responsibility is to be in conversations and meetings with management and customers that discuss business activities and needs, contemplating how IT can improve business advantage and understanding the economics of such resource investments. In addition, the CIO should educate the management and business on the opportunities and challenges of technology.

Listen, Guide, Rule, and Guard: There are two categories at the very top of CIO’s responsibility: Listen to the needs of the company and perform to the ultimate level to meet those needs. Those two have many subcategories. CIOs need to guide the company's conversation to define a clear vision for the IT department. More often this is easier said than done. But once the roadmap is defined, keep the executive staff engaged and do so often. Make it clear that the direction and accomplishments of IT are directly affected by the entire company's involvement. Make IT integrated into the company while avoiding making it a separate "stand-alone" department. Constantly assess the vulnerability of the information and take a more proactive approach to governance and risk management.

Sustainability & Advancement: While sustainability would mean meetings with own IT Team (reviewing the sub-functions), Business Heads, Shared Services Heads and other members of the leadership team on a review mode of the expectation that they get from the IT function. Advancement is to spend time every day reading about the rapidly changing technological scenarios, peer meetings with other CXOs, and building upon the strategy for the future. 

The key areas which need daily focus and manage the time and resource effectively: 

(1). Business Engagement – Spend time with key business teams and understanding which direction the organization is progressing. Understand the business view on IT. Keep refining the IT strategy to meet business needs.
(2). Projects/Operations Review – Check the automated dashboards to review key people, finance, operational and project deliverables.
(3). Spend time on personal development –CIOs need to practice thought leadership and make an influence on their industry and professions. Keep Industry connections warm, Leverage tools to capture the Technology/Market Trends, and envision the future of IT.
(4). Dedicate open door time for people to come and discuss any challenges, or share any innovative ideas and creative problem-solving.

As a senior executive, CIOs need to spend the significant portion of time on envisioning and strategizing IT as key components of building digital business capabilities; they shall also take time for putting attention to the important details, and they shall have ability and disciplines to manage their time and energy more effectively.

Posted in: CIO Leadership