Ituniqueness ~ Future of CIO

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Ituniqueness

10:53 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

IT leaders and managers make an objective and comprehensive IT management assessment in order to lead changes and digital transformation effortlessly.

Compared to the other executive positions, the CIO role continues to be shaken up, refined, reinvented and reenergized. The magic “I” of the CIO title sparks many imaginations and modern CIOs need to wear different hats and play multiple roles.

The purpose of "CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT " is to provide guidelines for building a framework to run a highly effective, highly innovative and highly mature digital IT organization. Also, it provides the principles to reinvent CIO leadership via practicing multitudes of digital influence. Here is a set of blogs for brainstorming the role of CIOs and reinventing IT to get digital ready.

IT Uniqueness

Uniqueness of IT At the dawn of the digital era, with rapid changes and exponential growth of information, IT is no longer just that monolithic support function which is hidden behind; on the contrary, it continues to grow in importance to organizations, both operationally and as a competitive advantage. The role of CIO is unique because every CIO is different and whatever the management team needs or wants at the time out of the CIO will also be different, and by type of business needs will be different as well. More specifically, what’s the uniqueness of digital IT and how to run IT as a business differentiator?

Initiate Highly Capable Digital IT Forward-looking IT organizations are shifting from a process-driven silos function to a capability-based digital engine of the organization, because often technology is the disruptive force of business transformation, and the information is one of the most valuable assets in modern business. IT needs to go beyond “keeping the light on,” and focus on adding value to catalyze business growth and improve organizational maturity. More specifically, how to run a highly capable digital IT?

IT Organization Reinvention With information technology permeating every corner of the organization, IT can no longer just hide in the corner to be a cost center and play background music only, IT needs to be the core of most parts of the business today and must, therefore, be visible and present all the time. To keep IT relevant, CIOs are expected to constantly propose new ideas and challenge the status quo. Every IT organization needs to tailor their own circumstances, make an objective SWOT assessment, build its own strength and demonstrate their signature themes.

Unconventional IT Within abundant information and emergent digital technologies, IT is a key component of the innovative business mindset to reimagine “what is possible,” to unleash business potentials and transform the company to high performance and highly innovative business. CIOs as “Chief Innovation Officer”: How can you inspire and empower your employees and mentor them with unconventional wisdom to unlock creativity and harness innovation?

IT Creativity With the overwhelming growth of information and often technology-led digital disruptions, Information & Technology becomes the most time-intensive piece for solving innovation puzzles. Innovation happens at the intersection of business and IT, you have to manage it strategically and systematically in order to achieve a consistent business result. IT is no longer just the mechanical or monolithic hardware pieces to keep the business spinning or the mechanism for realizing a vision described by other C-level executives; it’s the innovation engine to run a digital organization. Here are three perspectives of IT creativity.