The “CIO Master” Monthly Book Tuning: Running IT with Differentiated Competency Aug. 2016

Digital IT needs to become more dynamic and innovative to be a pathfinder for the digital transformation.

Modern CIOs have many personas and face great challenges. It is not sufficient to only keep the lights on. Regardless of which industry or the nature of organization you are in, being a digital leader will need to master the art of creating unique, differentiating value from piles of commoditized technologies, but more specifically, what are the digital-savvy CIOs doing to run IT as a value creator and innovation engine? Here is the monthly “CIO Master” Book Tuning.

Running IT with Differentiated Competency  Aug. 2016

• Running a Differentiated IT to Reach the Zenith of Digital Maturity  The majority of IT organizations today still limit their role as a support center to keep the lights on. Bottom line thinking is one of the great limitations of modern IT organization. The true ITvalue is hard to derive from support services since measuring productivity can be elusive and difficult to quantify. Also with explosive information flow and disruptive digital technologies, all forward-thinking organizations claim they are in the information management businesses. Hence, IT as an information steward of the business has to be run as a  strategic partner and a key differentiator of the company, in order to improve business competency and reach the zenith of digital maturity.

• Managing Innovation in a Structural Way”: Digital is the age of innovation. And innovation is what leads to differentiation. There are many ways to differentiate and, therefore, there are many ways to pursue innovation. For many organizations getting stuck at the lower level of maturity, innovation is still a serendipity, with a very low success rate, often the ROI is not proportional to the investment they pour in, and lack of a balanced portfolio to both managing incremental innovations and embracing disruptive innovations. Is there a magic formula to build a highly innovative company and how to manage innovation as a core business capability in a structural way?

• Are Visionary CIOs Often Outliers? Modern CIOs have multiple personas, they have to wear different hats to fit the roles situationally in order to lead effectively. Technology is complex, business is complex, and people are complex. Due to increasing changes in the digital dynamic environment, The CIOs needs to be a dynamic person with vision, open, growth and complexity mindset- with high ability to envision the digital trends, manage innovations, communicating to suite situations so as to craft strategies and make things happen. Visionary CIOs are in demand, and, but who are they, and what can they do to drive digital transformation of the business.

• Running an “I-Information Driven” IT to Catalyze Business Growth: We live in a technology world and every day more and more technologies affect the way we live, love, and think. Great opportunity, danger, and disruption are around every corner. Hence, IT plays a more crucial role in the organization to optimize and innovate the business, with ultimate goals to push the IT organization to be clear about its position via the company’s core business growth. Here are three aspects of running a “Digital Fit” IT to catalyze business growth and improve overall organizational maturity.

• How Responsive Could Digital IT Be? Digital is all about change with continuous disruptions and exponential information flow, a responsive IT means a lot of things for the business’s digital transformation: speed, innovation, agility, ambidexterity, modernization, intelligence, value creation, and maturity, etc. How responsive could IT be in order to ride learning curves, keep the pace of rapid changes, and accelerate digital transformation of the business?

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Posted in: CIO Master,IT Transformation