Let’s face it: she who brings home the bacon rules the roost. If anything, a CIO is unmistakably associated with SPAM not bacon! This is the fundamental problem keeping CIOs from relevance.
The CIO role is increasingly being touted as one of “business” leadership. Lip service is good; real recognition is priceless.
How many times is the CMO being asked to prove marketing’s ROI? Who really drives the IT agenda – the CIO or the CMO/COO/CFO…? Is the CIO an “equal” at the leadership table?
These are rhetorical questions because anyone who has seen, leave alone participated in, senior leadership interactions knows that the CIO role still, in more ways than one, has second class citizenship status. To paraphrase George Orwell: all are equal but some are more equal.
Why should a CIO care about this apparent lack of equality? Well, most don’t and that is where the problem starts for the rest. Those who do understand that a CIO has a critical role to play at the innovation table and sitting on a lower chair does not help the organization or its stakeholders.
So how does a CIO overcome this hurdle?
Think, feel, believe and act as if you are not the CIO but the CEO of IT – an internal business within the business not a support function. Run IT like a business, don’t just talk about it. IT’s value will become apparent.
Then and only then will you, the CIO, be thought of as bringing home the bacon!
