The New Age CIO

I send a Newsletter to over 4000 CIOs, and the response I got on this was incredible. So I took the liberty of sharing this on my blog site as well.

 A LinkedIn connection shared this cartoon which reminded me how difficult it is for CIOs to change old habits. The famous cliche “You cannot get fired for choosing IBM” still holds true. However, it is unfair to blame it on only job preservation. CIOs tend to be risk averse as they see failure as a threat to their seat at the Executive Table. Vendors need to take some blame as well for bringing relatively immature products to the market adding to the risk of breaking the mould. How does the old-school CIO break the mould?

Curiously some of it happens just by chance. For example, many CIOs are asked to take on roles that they have never done before. I know several who are CIO/COO, CIO/CFO and even CIO/CMO. These lucky CIOs are forced to break the mould. If you were not amongst the fortunate to get such roles, you can still break away from the mould by fearlessly following your instincts and focusing on how to deliver value to the Enterprise.

If you want to break the mould but still feel your job as a CIO is not done, you can follow Steve Gallagher’s “The First 90 Days in a New CIO Position” posted in the Harvard Business Review Blog. In addition to getting the house in order and managing the culture shift towards innovation, Steve talks about building a technology enabled Strategic Vision.  

A footnote to the blog:  In the newsletter, I shared information on two CIOs who have broken the mould:Becky Wanta and Maria Fitzpatrick.  Both been outstanding CIOs and both have been exemplary for women to break the glass ceiling, both have a very illustrious consulting practice now, and most relevant to me, both have been a source of encouragement and support for me and my product uGovernIT.  Since it is impossible to summarize their achievements in this short Editorial section, I have provided links to their LinkedIn Profiles.