| |April 201819CIOReviewthe usual process efficiency and cost reduction projects, but also has man-dates for conceptualising and driving revenue generating initiatives.IT should report to MD/CEO since IT is involved in almost every business processIT being involved across multiple functions in the organization gives it a unique position of being able to get a top-level view of the complete IT landscape in the organization. With rapid advancement in the technology landscape, the CIO needs to evalu-ate the suitability of adopting newer technologies within the organization.IT is able to see· the current state of IT in the enterprise, · the needs of the organization in a holistic manner, · which areas are interlinked with other, · what initiatives touch which part of the organization,· be able to act as an advisor to the functions in deciding what projects to prioritize,· give inputs on deciding business priorities, and· which new technologies are ready for adoption in the enterprise.Therefore, in many organizations, IT heads now report directly to the MD/CEO and not to CFO or other business heads. IT involvement from ideation of pro-jects, joint responsibilityTraditionally IT has been only deliv-ering projects, not participating in the project ideation and planning dis-cussions. Today almost all new pro-jects and initiatives require IT to be involved from the business concept stage, to validate the new product or service being deliberated, to give views on feasibility, and not after de-cisions have been taken and given to IT to execute. CIOs need to be more involved to understand business, to evaluate projects, be able to choose the right technology and partner, and demonstrate the value of the solution to their business colleagues.Timelines and delivery schedules are decided in conjunction with IT. These projects are jointly owned by IT and the business function in-volved. With shared accountability, the success or failure of the projects is also joint. The traditional blaming of IT for non-delivery or poor execution is no longer the case.Talk the business language, drop the jargonThe CIO needs to demonstrate high business acumen and be good com-municators. Possessing soft skills and business skills is equally important as technical skills. As IT leaders advance in their careers from tech-focused roles to leadership roles with increas-ing responsibility, they must real-ize that a large part of their success depends on establishing strong lines of communication with senior execu-tives in the business, and the ability to influence stakeholders. CIOs need to learn from each new experience and interaction with business coun-terparts and embed that learning into the IT group.With IT becoming more and more strategically significant in or-ganizations, it plays an instrumen-tal role in contributing to the better functioning of almost all business de-partments. The IT department needs to be therefore much more customer oriented than ever before, just like as a company we need to be responsive to external customer needs. Business heads these days proactively engage with their IT counterparts during strategic and operational planning, and try to co-create value for the or-ganization. Seniors in IT should de-velop their business domain skills and be able to understand business better to be able to add value. They need to be advisors to business, able to ar-ticulate in business terms what they are able to understand and appreciate the customer point of view. All team members should develop inter per-sonal and listening skills, and be flex-ible and sensitive in handling difficult situations. Focus should be on busi-ness outcome and value proposition. Business capability and techni-cal capability are equally impor-tant. When we can separate the benefits from the technologies that deliver them and effectively articu-late those benefits, then IT will be more easily accepted and embraced.Building good rapport and good working relationship with business colleagues helps. CIOs need to learn from each new experience and interaction with business counterparts and embed that learning into the IT group Joydeep Dutta
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