Career is Over ?

It was 1999, and that is not very long ago. I was counseling a young IT

student on career options. Very confidently I was telling him that fancy

hardware and software companies were not the only destination for him. In fact,

I stressed that, he will grow faster in user organizations-which are IT savvy,

and will embrace IT to such an extent that will become their lifeline. That was

the time that CIO was emerging.

That was years back. I do not know what happened to that young boy. But two

things happened to me, which literally shook me, as if out of some deep slumber.

I was in Bangalore some days back to be in an expert panel that was selecting

the "CIO of the Year". To my utter dismay, I discovered that most of

our aspiring CIOs were the same old IT professionals-very technical, and still

not thinking the way a CEO thinks. Their nomination papers were bulky, reminding

me of some hardworking student's research thesis. They seemed to be still too

deeply entrenched in technology. I was wondering how long will the CIO take to

be as smart and precise as a CEO, and how much will he able to influence the

board.

My answer did not take long to come. Later in the evening, I met a very

interesting person who sells MIS packages, which is now fashionably called the

dashboard. He told me that besides selling the entire MIS/EIS package to

enterprises, he is also selling them dashboard services. Which means he will

install the MIS/EIS system at the client's site free of charge, but generate

all the MIS reports the management wants, and charge for that. My friend

informed me that while in some of the advanced countries this concept is already

selling, he has been able to manage a contract in India too.

Outsourcing MIS report generation could perhaps be the last nail in the

coffin. I am sure the decision of organizations like Bharti, Bank of India,

Dabur, Ballarpur Industries, Whirlpool, and many more, to completely outsource

their IT management, must be based on merits.  Whatever one might say, the

fact is that with this outsourcing, the CIO would have had to let go a lot of

decision making on technologies, products, and people. By no stretch of

imagination would outsourcing be called a step towards a higher and bigger role

for the CIO in the organization. The fact is that we are now seeing an

increasing role of people like CFO in IT decisions. If IT management is being

out-sourced, if even dashboard reports are going to be generated by external

consultants, then surely CIO's role is in danger.

There are about 125 people in the country with the CIO designation, and about

1,500 people with the same job profile but different designation. And it is

mostly in organizations where these people presently work, that a lot of IT is

being outsourced. The trend is only beginning to gain momentum. But it is not a

great thing for the CIO if the big boss of his company thinks that outsiders

will do a better job. Future growth for him will surely not be as easy.

It is therefore time that the CIOs (whatever their designation be) put on

their thinking caps again. When value add is the name of the game, they will

have to clearly demonstrate that they bring value to the organization. This

value add will have to be in terms of coming out with mantras for saving costs,

reducing time cycles, better customer retention, higher revenue actualization,

and finally greater competitive edge. Obviously, they will have to learn to get

work out of teams that are not working directly under him. 

Finally, I hope the young boy whom I had given advice in 1999, is not reading

this piece and cursing me. I am sure he must be laughing at those who became

CIOs.

The author is Editor of Dataquest IBRAHIM

AHMAD