Ten Essential Rules for CIOsIn this presentation we cover essential

rules for Chief Information OfficersRules to make you succeed as a CIO, not

as an IT Manager, or CTO

CXO AdvisorAdvise – Innovate – Change

1: The CIO is a business person, not a technology person

The Enterprise CIO Forum ( www.enterprisecioforum.com ) published three talent that make CIOs successful COURAGE: Because there will be many people in your organisation

(including your own department) who will resist the changes you need to make to keep IT relevant.

CLOUT, or influence: CIOs focus on the following things first: Business results, business knowledge, executive relationships, business relationships, and only 12% of the CIOs focus is on IT.

ASTUTENESS, or cleverness and wisdom: Always in a business, not IT, sense. You need a clever business brain, long before you need to be a clever IT person

2: Don’t do ITWe shouldn’t even call it IT anymore The CIOs role is not only to do with Information and Technology. IT doesn’t do the “I” part of IT, and the “T” part - the technology - is

commoditised, standardised, and freely available

Do ACT – Applied Competitive Technology APPLIED: How the technology is used in your organisation is much, much

more important that what the technology is• Spend your time concentrating on how the technology is used

COMPETITIVE: Look for ways in which technology can make your organisation more competitive• New products, markets and channels can all be delivered to your

organisation by using technologies available now TECHNOLOGY: The new technology rules have almost nothing to do with

what the technology is, and everything to do with architecture and governance – how it is managed

3: Technology is only a ticket to the gameYou might think technology is important, and it is, but your business thinks technology is just the ticket to the game Well running, stable and available technology and platforms:

• IT = electricity, plumbing, heating, desks and telephones They know they can’t run the business without it, but it doesn’t warrant

any special attention from them If you’re proud of meeting your SLAs, your business will say, “So what”.

That, to them is like someone proudly saying: “The lights work”

In the same way you cannot attend a football match without a ticket, you do need to get the technology right That’s why so many companies are outsourcing – they are leaving the

SLA stuff to professionals, and focusing on business results

4: You only have one customerThe business is IT’s customer. What rubbish! The definition of a customer: Someone who pays for the products and services you provide (not

internal transfers, or budget grabs) Customers have the right to buy goods and services elsewhere, if they

don’t like your price or service (or just because they feel like a change) The service provider has the right to “fire” the customer

• If a customer becomes un-economic, are late payers, or just too much trouble

None of the above is true of “internal customers”

Focus on your organisation’s (external) customers If you satisfy them, you won’t have to worry about your “internal”

customers – they’ll be making too much money through you to complain Adhere to Commandment Three – you do need to provide good internal

services

5: Always try to say “Yes”Most CIOs are so far behind in providing for business requirements, and so stuck on security, governance, architecture, and budget issues, that they cannot see their way to providing new services. They say no Business executives can get IT from anywhere

Change your mind-set Anything is possible, and available - figure out how to provide it Find a solution in the Cloud and source it for the business (or they will)

Use “Proof of Concept” tools Say yes to your business demands, and undertake a proof of concept

exercise You can only have two results:

• It works - motivate for the funds• It doesn’t work – you’ve proved why the concept should not go ahead

6: Change at the speed of businessThink Gartner Group’s: “Pace Layer Model”Transaction layer: 70% of IT lies in transaction systems. (These are your ERP systems). They

specialise in processing very many transactions as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible

They are not good at customised changes specific to your business We make the mistake of customising them:

• Difficult to upgrade, expensive to maintain and slow to keep up with business demands

Change the transaction layer annually

More on rule 6

6: Change at the speed of businessGartner Group: “Pace Layer ModelInnovation layer: Do your changes here, with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)

into your systems of record Need an Agile platform to do so, but that’s just another architectural

detail Change your innovation layer monthly

More on rule 6

6: Change at the speed of businessGartner Group: “Pace Layer ModelDifferentiation layer: This layer is unique to your organisation. We call it the “delta” or

difference layer• Proof of Concept layer• Once the product or service has been proven, you can move it into the “innovation”

layer Change your differentiation layer weekly

If you think about computing in these three layers, you can start to change at the speed of business

7: You have no strategyDon’t wait until the business produces a strategy, then develop the IT strategy in response to this But you need courage, influence, and cleverness (See Rule One) to make

a proper IT strategy happen

You need to follow the rules to make this work Seen as a business person Not fixated on technology Focused on the (external) customer Solutions orientated (say yes) IT can change quickly

Develop the business strategy which encompasses IT You still need an IT plan to make it happen

8: Be involved in businessCIOs have to be business people first, and IT people second CIOs only need to know enough about technology not to be fooled by IT

salespeople and technologistsHow much business do you really know? More than most

• Business processes• Information• Technological trends can make or break your business• Project management• NB: You have a view across the entire business that no-one else except the CEO can

see

Involved in business When were you last on the factory floor, go with a salesman on a sales call, in

the warehouse, or on a delivery truck? Set aside two or three days a week to be in the business

Your exclusive perspectives and business knowledge is not only useful, but unique.

9: Money is a political number – it’s not realYou just don’t have the budget to follow these rules? No, not true!What money really is Only invented as a common form of exchange. It’s not real It is a measure of the value of exchange Can buy whatever you want with money, not being confined to the exchange

product the customer hasIn business money is even less real. Decision makers use money:

• To evaluate the worth of something• To signify how important they themselves are

They ask :• “Will this make me look good? Can I benefit?• If the answer is yes, they concern themselves with finding the funds needed to support

the CIO

We’ve seen CIO’s get 50% more than their IT budget just by focusing on the personal agendas of the decision makers, and by guaranteeing and driving benefits

10: Do it to yourself before someone does it to youIf you don’t change yourself and your department, prepare to have it changed for you! Modern IT trends threaten traditional IT (See my other slideshare at http://

www.slideshare.net/TerryWhite01/trends-that-threaten-it-departments-and-cios)

Your business can and will: Outsource Go straight to the cloud Use their own devices and applications

They know more about IT than you believeThey are focused on business results, and will bypass you, or even fire you if you don’t help them with this single-minded focus

SummaryCentral theme: CIOs are business people Technology is just a way to get things done CIOs need to drive the changing role of IT to something radically

different in their business

THE NEW CIO: COURAGE, CLOUT, INTELLIGENCE