CIOs are tasked with deploying technology to make the business more effective, but this is easier said than done as they’re often being pulled in a number of different directions.
Or, as Derek Wilcocks, group CIO at Discovery Limited puts it, they’re constrained by the past, but measured on the future, or at least until present reality intervenes.
Delivering the keynote at this year’s ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Banquet recently, Wilcocks had some advice for the CIO who is tasked with managing not only their technology, but also the expectations of their fellow executives.
He said the role is partly defined by a ‘Fear of Missing Out’ from executives, who are all reading business publications and analysts reports which encourage them to believe the somebody else is doing digital better than their own CIO.
He mentioned the famous De Beers marketing campaign of a ‘A diamond is forever’ which created the notion that no marriage was complete without a diamond ring.
“There’s no cultural background to that in any culture, there’s no history. Marketing created it. And by the same token, I think what we’re seeing today is that things that are very expensive and out of reach are being put forward as must-haves in the C-suite.”
He had another example from the writing of author Terry Pratchett, who wrote that he’d noticed that sex bore some resemblance to cookery in that there are complicated recipes with interesting pictures, and people, when really hungry, will create vast banquets in their imagination, ‘but at the end of the day, they’d settle happily for egg and chips, if it was well done, with maybe a slice of tomato’.
Back to basics
“I think digital is very similar to that. We have these massive dreams and aspirations, but there’s also the reality of what we are faced with every day. Being digital is important but it’s only one of the hundreds of things that make companies successful. Arguably I’d say it’s not as important as some of the basics; strong commercial management, empowering people, and possibly most important of all, understanding the value that the customers expect from you, and how to deliver it.”
Wilcocks thinks it’s important for CIOs to define their own role; something that many would be hard-pressed to do.
“We can say here’s my job description they gave me when I joined; on the other hand you may say here are my KPIs, but those are not your role. Your role is something you need to define for yourself. No CIO can possibly meet every expectation from every stakeholder.”
Another reason why it’s important for the CIO to define their role is that it frees their team to do their jobs.
Things that are very expensive and out of reach are being put forward as must-haves in the C-suite.
Derek Wilcocks, group CIO, Discovery.
“In any sufficiently large organisation, you’re fortunate to have people who work for you and with you that are far more capable and competent in doing their roles than you would ever be. You don’t want to work for somebody who thinks they can do your job better than you can, but just don’t have the time to do it today. You’re going to give them the freedom and let them step up to the plate. In this highly competitive and skills constrained world, individuals need to be the best they can be in your organisation. And your organisation needs these individuals to be best they can be to be able to succeed.”
He also thinks that goal-setting invokes ‘loss aversion’, which is part of behavioural economics, and something that all insurers consider.
“The concept behind loss aversion is that if you state your goals, and you make them public, or at least to your team, it becomes so much harder not to achieve, and so much harder to let go of your goals when the going gets tough.
“I think its critically important today that leader in all industries say, this is what I’m going to do, and then go out there and do it,” he says, and mentions that his boss Adrian Gore has set himself the task of running, at the age of 58, a five minute mile.
“I expressed some cynicism, but he told me it’s not necessarily about achieving the goal, but just in striving for it and it keeps him fully committed to his training programme, to doing everything he possibly can to achieve this goal.”
He also had some advice on business strategy, and says that this should not be confined to a few senior people.
Setting your strategy
“For strategy to be effective you need critical mass and a lot of people involved in executing it. In any reasonably large organisation you can’t keep changing your strategy because in my experience it takes about two to three years of patiently repeating, quietly reinforcing, encouraging, and building confidence before you’ll get that critical mass. Once you’ve got 30% or 40% of the people in your team talking about and acting upon the strategy and feeling they’re part of it, then you probably need about two or three years just to get value out of that strategy.”
The notion of ownership is also important, and he said that about a third of the 800 people who report to him directly have taken an objective, which they then ‘own’.
“At the end of a quarter they stand up in front of the whole team and present what they’ve done. One of the best feelings for me is to see somebody, who didn’t believe they could do it, stand up, and with tremendous pride, say ‘I’ve done this’, and this is over and above my day job. ‘I’ve done this thing which has made us better as a company’. I can assure you there’s no better feeling.
“Pass you strategy onto everyone around you, and let them talk about. You’ll be amazed at what will come out of it.”
ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Survey
During the ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Banquet, which took place on 27 October 2022, Brainstorm's editor-in-chief Adrian Hinchcliffe revealed the preliminary results of the annual Brainstorm CIO Survey.
* Article first published on brainstorm.itweb.co.za
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