Bridging the Reliability Divide

By Courtney Macavinta

It's no secret that the domain of the CIO is no longer just mainframes, server rooms and technology. More often than not, CIOs are now expected to be business strategists, consensus-builders, and able to hold their own in financial conversations with an organization's CFO -- and that's just for starters.

According to an Accenture survey of 300 IT and general business executives at large organizations, more than half say that IT's most important functions are to "improve business performance/profitability" and to "create competitive advantage." Yet at the same time, nearly 60% of general business executives surveyed say that IT executives understand the company's business only "somewhat" or "not at all." In some cases, there seems to be a credibility gap between what CIOs are trying to achieve within IT and the points they score in the boardroom.

"The great CIOs talk to their people in business terms," says Paul Groce, who leads the Christian & Timbers' Chief Information Officer (CIO) Functional Practice. "The CIO of today is a delegator and encourages relationships between the IT leaders and business leaders. We're hiring strong technologists who've also developed a greater portfolio of business skills."

How can CIOs close the so-called reliability gap and be seen as both top technologists and business strategists? Experts suggest that CIOs take the following proactive steps:

Step No. 1: Boost your business acumen
"Many CIOs haven't spent much time learning to understand their organization's financial structure," says Al Passori, vice president and program director for Gartner Inc. Executive Programs, who coaches CIOs and has written several reports on how CIOs can excel. "You need to be able to hold your own with the CFO and Wall Street analysts -- otherwise, it will limit your ability to move up to CFO, COO or CEO positions." Passori suggests that CIOs take care to align IT resources with business objectives, solidly comprehend their financial reporting, and implement a strategy to support the corporate vision. "Seek out situations where you can demonstrate that you have business acumen and where you can drive ideas about cost savings or revenue generation," he says. "Seek out a role where you can be viewed as a leader versus a follower."

In short, CIOs need to talk not so much in terms of the rate of server reliability or the percentage of downtime. Rather, they need to speak in terms of the return on investment, return on assets, and return on equity when explaining IT's impact. Groce says "the most successful CIOs relate their reporting metrics back to business results, not just IT results."

Step No. 2: Polish your communication style 
CIOs who want to be taken seriously as business leaders can start by getting to know their audience better -- whether they are presenting to a board member or another C-level executive. In most cases, "a lack of credibility comes from lack of communication," Groce notes. "Tailor your information to match the business partner's level of technical comfort." And CIOs should always communicate how IT's efforts impact the company's financial picture. "What was the impact on the bottom line? Take your results and translate them into business language," Groce says. "The business doesn't care about bits and bytes. The business cares about top-line revenue, bottom-line profits, or something in between."

Step No. 3: Create a succession plan 
Both Groce and Passori emphasize the importance of CIOs finding mentors within their organization -- this can increase their visibility and business know-how. "Recognize your shortcomings, communicate that to a mentor, and take a bold step like rotating into a business role or even working as chief of staff for the CEO for a year," Groce says. "Apply your intellectual horsepower and strategy skills outside of pure IT. That will allow you to get a bigger and better understanding of the business."

Passori adds that CIOs also have to mentor their staff -- and their potential successor -- if they want to move up the ladder: "Promote your people, promote yourself."

And last but not least, Passori says that CIOs have to think like CEOs.

"You need to work on your social leadership style, be able to look at the enterprise more holistically, make decisions with a high degree of confidence, and then communicate them internally and externally -- this is the hallmark of a good CIO or CEO."

Courtney Macavinta is a Silicon Valley-based business and technology writer. Her articles have appeared in CNET News.com, Business 2.0, Red Herring, Wired News, and The Washington Post. She also is managing editor of  The Online Family (TheOnlineFamily.net).