As digital change initiatives progress, and together with organizational changes like the ones Adobe’s Stoddard describes, the CIO role continues to evolve. According to Steve Hall, partner and president at technology research and advisory firm ISG, “Successful CIOs have transformed into business leaders of digital business units or have empowered IT organizations to create the digital backbone to accelerate the move to hybrid cloud environments and new operating models.”
According to Stephanie Overby’s recent article for Enterprisers, CIOs who struggle in these areas have had parts of their duties transferred to other departments or business units. More and more often, CIOs are given the authority to lead digital transformation throughout the whole business, including functions that have historically fallen outside of their remit.
In order to complete this phase, CIOs must have a greater awareness of not just emerging digital technologies and how to run them economically, but also the particular industry in which their firm operates and how IT may provide new income prospects and speed up business expansion. In order to work as strategic partners, CIOs must develop their business acumen and establish connections with CEOs and GMs.
CIOs who take the helm in driving digital transformation are expected to wear several hats, including those of business strategist and change agent. In the task of digital transformation, the CIO job is also witnessing a resurgence of decision-maker clout with suppliers and consultants as opposed to line-of-business executives.
As digital transformation progresses and it becomes clearer that even the most customer experience (CX) or operations-focused projects still turn to IT for change management, implementation, and sustainment, CIOs have once again taken the lead as the key decision-makers, making them once more the target for IT services vendors and consultancies.
Although the HR and IT teams are well connected and strive to deliver wonderful experiences, they frequently have distinct priorities. IT and HR will start collaborating more closely to develop a shared structure, vocabulary, and plan in order to accomplish both goals. According to Patrick Heffernan, senior analyst at Technology Business Research, expect CIOs to take greater initiative in the near- to medium-term when it comes to recruiting, training for new skills, and recognizing who organizations need to improve. The CIOs to keep an eye on are those who are currently involved in arranging the training schedule.
While CIOs once relied only on their technical talents to advance their careers, today’s most successful CIOs also excel in other areas, including as communication, bridging gaps between groups, and empathy, all of which are crucial during periods of significant cultural change. Effective IT teams control change. The greatest ones drive transformation.
Organizations are expecting more leadership from their IT teams than ever before as the speed of change quickens and technology increasingly serves as a company’s asset.
Leaders must adapt their plans and methods as their teams grow more inclusive and collaborative in order to capture the energy this new way of working creates. They must hone their techniques for including several people in a conversation and making sure everyone feels heard. To ensure that everyone in the department recognizes that they are a part of something more than themselves, they also need to develop their talents to link the work their teams are doing to their organization’s values, ambitions, and goals.
