Earlier this year, IBM released its report 'Exploring the C-Suite', which explores how different members of the C-suite work together to bring about organisational success. The findings in the report are based on 10 years of work, 17 studies and 23 000 executive interviews globally, revealing how businesses around the world are preparing for the digital era. The report has five broad findings that relate to CIOs:
1. CIOs are viewed as the third most strategic member of the C-suite other than the CEO.
2. CIOs are thought to be the most specialised member of the C-suite.
3. The 'CEO-CIO-CMO triumvirate' is considered the most likely to outperform among possible management trios.
4. Collaboration is the most important attribute for success among the C-suite, an area that CIOs are well-positioned to lead.
5. Technology's pervasiveness and increasing strategic importance presents an opportunity for CIOs to be bigger value contributors in the future.
The findings of this survey were based on research conducted globally, but we thought it would be interesting to get a view on the ground from some South African CIOs on the extent of the local relevance of the report.
Some differences
Anita Fuller, director of KPMG's CIO Advisory Services in Africa, says the organisation consults to public- and private-sector entities across Africa, enabling her to comment on the IBM study both from a local and continental perspective.
"Overall, the report is aligned to what we see in the African market, with differences in some key areas," she says.
In terms of the CIO being the most strategic member of the C-suite other than the CEO, she says there is a difference between how this plays out in the public and the private sectors.
"In the public sector, there is a focus on technological specialisation rather than strategy, and most CIOs are tasked with 'keeping the lights on'. However, in the past couple of years, there has been an increased focus and awareness on digital strategies, digital cities and e-government. This is starting to lie in the domain of CIOs, and they're starting to be seen as more strategic as a result of this."
On the other hand, she says the more mature private sector is seeing far more CIOs involved in strategy.
She also agrees that CIOs are increasingly thought to be the most specialised members of the C-suite and are viewed as very technical resources in both the public and the private sector. "However, there is a shift in the more mature performing organisations to place more emphasis on the information rather than the technological role of the CIO."
And she agrees wholeheartedly with the view that collaboration is the most important attribute for success among C-suite members. "CIOs are well-positioned to lead this, but they aren't leading yet. They are seen more as drivers of the tools that enable collaboration, but less as the leaders of collaboration strategies."
This, she says, will change as there is increased focus on the strategic importance of the role of technology within organisations. "We're moving into the information age, and as a result, CIOs are being driven by the rest of the C-suite to provide and manage the information necessary to drive business growth."
A different experience
Thinus Bekker, GM for IT and knowledge management at Rand Water, says that as Rand Water is not a retail company, and has its customers in other government organisations, the emphasis isn't strictly on marketing and interaction with the public.
"This organisation is industrial- and infrastructure-asset-intensive, where the core business is an industrial process directly supported by control systems or operational technology rather than typical IT solutions. Such digital technology is much closer to the core business than typical IT," he says.
In light of this, his views on the report's findings are that at Rand Water, the strategic hierarchy involves the CEO, COO, strategy executive, CFO and then the governance executive. In this context, the CIO is equally or less specialised than the COO, whose expertise usually includes a specialisation in water-related science, operations or engineering. And the CEO-CIO-COO trio is the most likely to outperform any other management trios in support of the organisation's strategic objectives.
The tail, not the dog
However, he fully agrees that collaboration is the most important attribute for success. "Time and availability to do this properly are issues, even if this is between people in the same organisation."
He also agrees that the pervasiveness of technology presents an opportunity for CIOs to be greater value contributors.
Herman Schouwink, CIO of Paycorp, says that although there is much talk of CIOs being viewed as significant strategic players in the C-suite, in practice, it's certainly not happening in his space yet. "CIOs are still seen as order-takers and deliverers rather than participating in actual business strategy," he says. "It's still quite old-school."
However, he concedes that this is changing. "There's great potential there, a lot of incubation takes place and much communication happens between me and my fellow executives."
He believes that CIOs are seen as the most specialised members of the C-suite. "This is no doubt true. What my team and I can deliver is seen as joining the dots between technology, business drivers and innovation, and the business development role and IT are closely aligning. The business looks to provide technical solutions for development, growth and new opportunities."
This process of joining the dots, he believes, will see closer cohesion between the CIO, CMO and CEO, which will ultimately result in the CIO role swinging across from order-taker to value-adder. And the cornerstone of this, as the IBM study suggests, is collaboration.
"IT has a globular view supporting all the business units. If you leverage all the information you have, you can make sure that the dots are joined and there is better communication in the C-suite. In my experience, silos can be broken down because IT can see the bigger picture. But you do have to use the information to bring people together, or you'll end up a sitting duck wondering what happened."
He says that all of this affirms the thread of the IBM study - that IT can bring about collaboration with colleagues and drive business value, all enabled by the CIO. "I say that it's not the dog, it's the tail. It's the balance and rudder - and it shouldn't feel any less significant because it's at the rear of the dog."
It seems that while all three South African IT heads confess that CIOs aren't playing as strategic a role as they could, the potential is certainly there. As the business-enabling aspects of IT become even more pervasive, the CIO's role in driving strategy will doubtless increase.
First published in the October 2014 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.
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