CIO 2025

Overcoming Hurdles to Stay in Hunt RAHUL NEEL MANI, EDITOR dynamicCIO

Rahul.mani@greyhead.in

Let Finance Be Your DNA (Tech is commoditized)

• Talking technology has made many CIOs obsolete/redundant. Since Tech is (more or less) integrated with business, Cos don’t need a CIO for it anymore.

• To be in hunt, a CIO must: • Speak the language of business: finance• Communicate the value derived from IT

investments and create revenue opportunities with tech.

• Be as sharp (or may be more) as CFO so that the latter doesn’t look at the CIO as a cost center but the core of business.

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Innovation is a Necessary Evil; Be a Catalyst

Today a very small % of the executives expect and/or trust IT to be the main source of innovation. That makes a CIO’s position shaky.

Since technology is the foundation for winning business strategies, look at Innovation as your masterstroke and not an afterthought.

Don’t let the execution of innovation fall short of the ambition.

Devote sufficient time and capacity on it. Let no organizational or cultural barriers stop innovation reach its end.

Make Customer Exp (CX)Your First GoalIts critical for a CIO to look for customer-facing positions. If you’re at your desk, you will lose – both business and your job.

To create a sticky Customer Experience (CX), CIO needs to marry customer expectations with technology to deliver an experience.

For example John Hinshaw, EVP of technology and operations at HPE became the chief customer officer (CCO) after the split to understand customer expectations and serve them better.

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Model Long-term Scenarios; Work on Short-term Goals

To be on the winning side, CIOs of the future need to plan with long-term strategic view in mind without losing eye on the short-term fundamental drivers.

While business-as-usual can take its course, its time that CIOs think of leading the march in finding new markets, and create IT’s ability to conquer those markets.

The CIO’s performance and survival will solely depend on his ability to grow business and not eat into its resources.

Turn Data (Garbage) into Gold (Actionable Insights)

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Almost all Companies have the ability to collect and store Data. The one who converts that Data (garbage) into Gold (actionable insights) is the CEO’s Man. Can a CIO be that man?

With the above thought in mind, make a 5 year plan to construct you own (and strictly not copy) Digital Transformation journey solely aimed at mining data for its value and not for its volume.

Are You Ready for 2025?