Organisational Cross-braces

SearchCIO.com’s recently published an article on ‘Six ways the CIO job description is changing‘ which focused on the top 6 new skills that CIO’s are expected. A number were unsurprising in the context of today, however, there were some which showed a change and maturing of this increasingly important role as part of an organisational makeup.

We are increasingly aware of the importance of information in the success of organisations and their business models. Increasing numbers of these roles are migrating from IT Directors to IM&T Directors or CIOs and what we are seeing is a migration of the roles and responsibilities along with the underpinning skills and experiences required.

Whilst there were a number of more technical skills included (enterprise data management, project management, and security and compliance), what was more interesting, were the more functional skills: legal expertise (#6); corporate finance (#5); and vendor or partner management (#3).

The rise in importance of skills in these areas indicates that organisations are beginning to understand and invest in the skills and competences required to ensure that information becomes a fundamental cross-brace to their organisations.

In the connected era that we are increasingly finding ourselves in the potential value of using information will be critical to the success of organisations and their ability to respond to changes in the market environment that they live in.

Whilst it is good to see the emergence of these skills in relation to CIOs they cannot be looked at merely in isolation of the CIO role. Most organisations already have functional skills in these areas, legal, commercial, finance, and supply chain management teams to name a few. Therefore, what is also important is that CIOs leverage these, also cross-bracing, skill-sets and vice versa.

Whilst all functional teams have a tendency to believe that they are the lead team, in reality they all have their strengths, and if better harnessed together, then they are more likely to achieve what organisations want from them. Those CIOs (and General Counsels, CPOs, CFOs, etc..) who really rise to the challenge are those who are able to create those strong working relationships with their peer functional leaders and their teams. By doing so creating symbiotic and value adding solutions that may surprise the wider organisation.