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CIOs: Can the Role of CIO Survive? Not as it's currently defined.
CIOs get no respect. Gartner found in a survey of CEOs that only 4 percent of them consider their CIO as a partner in managing their strategy and innovation.
CIOs want to change that perspective. And increasingly the CIO is being looked towards as a source of innovation and business leadership. Donald Light, senior Insurance and technology analyst with Celent, said that “The newer theme [for the CIO position] is innovation and emerging technology. We are banging the innovation drum. ”
Jorge Lopez, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said that “Any CEO who believes that he or she is the innovation leader of the firm must retain a close direct working relationship with the CIO in this age of rapid business digitization, or risk being blindsided. CIOs must improve IT-related competitor intelligence, and use that information to build a productive relationship with the person the CEO sees as the leader of innovation… CEOs should re-examine the role the CIO plays today in business innovation and strategy. As the Information Age progresses, the risk of being blindsided by new forms of digital competition is rising.”
Andi Mann, Vice President of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies, writes that “Here’s the pivot CIOs need to make: Instead of defining and controlling IT, the CIO needs to become a trusted advisor to the business. Netflix, for example, has done away with the CIO, and instead, has a CTO. This person is looking at the technology future, and advising the business on how it can drive business opportunity with technology. There you have a strategic role that’s important and visible to the business.”
Mann’s example of Netflix replacing the CIO with a different position is beginning to become more common. The role of CIO is having a hard time staying relevant. Some think that if the CIO role can’t morph quickly enough into one that is responsive to changing technology and businesses that are ever more reliant on technological innovation that the CIO position will be gradually replaced by other roles. Already 20 percent of global 2000 companies are experimenting with a new set of technology role and leadership titles that include titles like chief digital officer, chief customer officer, chief analytical officer and head data scientist.
