While it’s widely recognized that CIOs are in a stronger position today than ever before, only a few digital leaders possess the attributes necessary for tomorrow’s business success.
Encouraged by recent successes in digital transformation and a new round of IT spending that Gartner predicts will grow 5.1% in 2022, digital leaders should seize the opportunity to expand their remit into new and exciting areas. .
Unfortunately, many CIOs are still lagging behind. Research by Deloitte and Workday suggests that many IT managers are a bit too reactionary. So what’s wrong?
How to adapt to change?
One of the main problems encountered is adapting to change. CIOs have spent years fighting for attention – as they told the board about the dangers of ‘disruption’, the company was reluctant to invest more and more money in a technology function that she rarely understood and often undervalued.
Deloitte and Workday surveyed 600 executives worldwide and found that only 8% of CIOs strongly agree that the role of IT is becoming more strategic, that incremental technology improvements are crucial to long-term success and that their organization has high levels of data literacy.
Many IT teams remain held back by static processes: just under half (45%) of CIOs say they need to innovate faster and 43% are under pressure to create greater business agility.
The study also found that progressive digital leaders behave differently than their peers in three key areas: leveraging data to power decision-making processes, collaborating with finance to drive transformation, and adoption. an agile and incremental approach to digital transformation.
“A progressive CIO builds agility not only in their technology and architecture, but they create an organization that is responsive and can adapt to change,” Sheri Rhodes, chief customer officer and former CIO of Workday, told ZDNet. “They think carefully about how the work is done, in terms of working in the product teams and adding value. »
Transversal culture
CIOs have proven over the past two years that digital transformation is not a topic to be avoided in meetings, but is also vital to long-term business success.
Now it’s about breaking the perception that the CIO is a maintenance role and proving (once again) that the CIO is the key person to drive cross-organizational and digital change.
The report suggests that there are many opportunities for CIOs to become more progressive. According to Sheri Rhodes, the key to this change lies much more in adopting the right leadership culture than in implementing the right systems and services. “It’s about creating an operating model today, and the business processes that support that model, that can adapt to the demands of tomorrow,” she says.
Rather than relying on big budgets and advanced technologies, the study indicates that progressive CIOs focus on spreading three cultural traits: mindset, agility, and collaboration.
Other research also hints at the crucial importance of culture. According to Logicalis’ Global CIO Survey for 2021, nearly 80% of IT leaders believe their organization is already falling behind competitors due to its inability to keep pace with change.
Establish an ongoing relationship between the DAF and the DSI
When new demands and unexpected challenges arise, an agile approach enables organizations to absorb the impact and find ways not only to survive, but also to thrive, agrees Sheri Rhodes. “You can’t think of everything – nobody would have predicted that the pandemic would have the magnitude and duration that it has had. But organizations can deal with change by building something flexible, breaking down silos, and creating cross-functional work. »
For digital leaders looking to become more progressive, Sheri Rhodes stresses the importance of building strong connections with C-suite peers. “Success is about developing that progressive attitude and helping to shape business strategy and internal partnerships,” she says.
Progressive CIOs are indeed particularly collaborative, with the study indicating that 60% of them describe themselves as such, compared to 44% for all CIOs. In fact, 90% of CIOs who consider themselves progressive say their IT department is much more integrated with the business today than it was 12 months ago.
These “forward-thinking” CIOs also ensure that their priorities are strategically aligned with the broader business, and with the goals of other members of management. The survey further suggests that one of the most important relationships for CIOs to cultivate is with the chief financial officer (CFO). A whopping 83% of CIOs believe they will miss their growth goals if IT and finance don’t work more closely together.
In the case of Workday’s business strategy, for example, Sheri Rhodes explains that she has two key techniques for ensuring that the IT department collaborates effectively with the CFO. First, she points to quarterly investment reviews, which show the team is moving in the right direction. These quantitative results are then supported by qualitative assessments. “It’s about understanding the thinking process, which is why the business needs to change direction or think differently. So I think success comes from the combination of two things: keeping the conversations going, and then supporting that ongoing relationship with structured measurement mechanisms,” she concludes.
Source: ZDNet.com