New CIO Role: Change Warrior

What separates effective CIOs from ineffective ones?

The answer has changed dramatically in the last twenty years. Twenty years ago, technical expertise was the critical variable. Today, it’s whether the CIO can move the rest of the company to do things differently.

The problem is that many CIOs developed their management skills in the earlier era when technology assessment and implementation were the key issues. Now they need a completely new set of skills.

I’m grateful to Massimo Russo, vice president and director of The Boston Consulting Group, for co-developing and coauthoring the material in this column.

I recall reading an article a few years ago on why so many software implementations in areas like customer relationship management (CRM) were failing. In fact, virtually all of the systems had software that worked properly and users who understood how to use it. The problem was that the underlying business processes had not changed, so the software’s capabilities were largely going to waste.

When top management asked whether the software was worthwhile, the answer was no. (Note: "worthwhile" is very different from "working.") In many companies, this led to a pervasive feeling in upper management that software projects were oversold. The real issue was that many CIOs defined their jobs too narrowly and did not take sufficient ownership for the whole change management process.

The consequence of this syndrome is that today in many companies, IT budgets are being squeezed. This leaves the CIOs with even fewer resources to manage change. There is a tremendous opportunity cost because well-implemented IT has the power to rapidly produce huge benefits.

Today, many CIOs are asking how they can turn this around.

by Jonathan Byrnes

Full Story: http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4854&t=dispatch