In an attempt to provide more direct insights into the world of the CIO from a layman’s perspective, here is the initial blog in a series on CIO Leadership Basics.
The first thing a CIO should remember is to define their own strategy for moving their organization forward in a productive and positive manner to best leverage the power of digital technologies.
While there is no absolutely one right way of accomplishing that, an approach that has been successfully used in the past has consisted of the following steps:
Carefully assess the existing state, paying particular attention to existing hot spots and perceived short comings. This requires reviewing both the capabilities and performance of the IT organization along with the resulting systems, business processes and digital technologies that support and enable the business to actually operate. Basically, you want to know how well they are performing as compared to what is needed and as compared to the competition.
If it doesn’t already exist, define and put in place a support organization with the key business areas to ensure the appropriate level of ownership and drive to manage the investments and resulting assets. The strategy needs to be a partnership between the CIO and the other C-level business executives.
In collaboration with the key business areas, define the required future state model to support and enable the corporate strategy with the corresponding business capabilities. Also define the high level architecture that will be required and then use it as a road map to help manage the transition from “as is” to “to be”.
Outline and obtain buy-in to the principles under which decisions will be able to be made on the IT investment and assets so as to facilitate alignment with proper oversight and management.
Assess the performance of the existing suppliers and the effectiveness and efficiency of the existing spend. Look for opportunities to streamline to both save money and to reinvest into the future environment. Whenever possible, go with strategic partners that can best get where you need to go.
Define the potential initiatives that will be required to deliver the future state along with a clear understanding of the high level requirements, costs, benefits, dependencies and risks.
Pull it all together into a living and breathing strategy document and work program that will be reviewed and updated on a regular basis with the inevitable changes that will happen along the way. Don’t forget to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments as you start to implement the plan, as success begets success.