CIO’s Should be Technology Leaders, Not Followers!

Implications: New gadgets provide an opportunity for CIOs to show leadership, or not.  While executive toys may seem a trivial distraction to CIOs focused on enterprise-altering projects, they can be critical to the perception of IT within the executive ranks.  Working together with an executive to test the latest gadget is a great way to forge a relationship and gracefully handle what otherwise could be an ongoing issue.

Analysis:

In the grand scheme of things in enterprise IT, CIOs tend to focus on keeping the corporate infrastructure robust and functional and on delivering applications with significant business value.  Paying attention to some executive’s latest toy fixation is at best low priority, and at worst a potential breach in IT policies.  While this attitude is understandable, given the CIO’s large-scale priorities, it is also a serious mistake.  CIOs, and by extension the entire IT department, are service organizations that live and die by their reputation.  Pro-actively testing the latest gadgets enhances the CIO’s reputation.  Refusing, or being ignorant of, the latest gadget hurts the CIO’s reputation.

CIOs, just like the head of any other business unit, need to understand their customer base.  This means understanding how their customer base is segmented and the specific needs of each of those segments.  Executives make up one key segment of any CIO’s customer base, and require a different level of support than other customer groups.

Some executives are in love with the latest gadgets and are consistent early adopters of technology.  Some of these gadgets may eventually become useful throughout a wide area of the enterprise, some may be nothing more than gimmicks, some may represent unacceptable risks, and many are passing fads.  In each case, however, they represent an opportunity for the CIO to either show technology leadership or not. 

Despite the great things the CIO and his/her organization may be doing around enterprise infrastructure or critical business applications, many executives will form their opinion of the CIO and IT leadership based on gadgets.  The CIO that consistently refuses to look at the latest gadgets, or shows little understanding of those gadgets, runs the risk of being branded as lagging in technology savvy, or simply uncooperative.  Most executives don’t see the level of technology behind the scenes in the IT department, but they do see whether or not the CIO is familiar with and/or open to looking at the latest gadget. 

CIOs should not only be willing to look at all the latest gadgets, but they ensure they are familiar with most of them before an executive brings them in.  CIOs already need to maintain some understanding of the latest developments in things like server virtualization and CRM.  Now they also need to know whether Apple’s iPhone can be used in their environment.  CIO’s should have an active program to acquire the latest gadgets and test them in their environment, preferably before some executive decides they want that gadget. 

Executive toys provide an excellent marketing tool for CIOs.  It’s not necessary that the IT department blindly accept all the latest gadgets.  It is necessary that they understand the latest gadgets’ strengths and weaknesses so when an executive decides they need that gadget the CIO can talk knowledgeably about why that is or is not a good idea.  One way or another, executive toys ARE going to influence how the executives view the CIO and the IT department.  Since that is the case, it behooves the CIO to ensure that view is positive.  It’s an easy way to gain credibility with the executive team!