CIOs now expected to drive innovation

According to Irshad Saifi, Director IT and Digitization (CDIO), Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, organizations now expect CIOs to understand business processes and come forward to solve them using technology.

What is the role of the CIO in today’s post-Covid world?

As we all know, Covid was a major pandemic and people living worldwide got affected. As many industry experts reported, it was quite challenging for many organizations to work from anywhere, but it all got settled down within a few months. The positive impact of Covid was the realization of the importance of technology in almost all industries.

Initiatives that were in the plans or were still under discussion saw a swift implementation and adoption. This gave more importance than ever to technology departments in almost every organization. The expectations have been increased by the business and they expect CIOs to understand business processes and come forward to solve them using technology.

Technology has become more important than ever; business runs on it in almost all the industries. Earlier only large enterprises used to have a CIO position, but in the past couple of years even mid-size companies have a CIO position, and interestingly smaller companies have also started hiring them.

What is the future role of the CIO?

CIOs by and large are part of the executive committee in all the organizations, and they are part of strategic discussions. Due to their nature of the job to work closely with business, they have a good understanding of processes running across all departments in the company. Comparing with the traditional CIO role of keeping the lights on, they are now expected to drive innovation using all the modern and innovative technologies, help the company to increase revenue, decrease costs, avoid redundant technologies, bring all technologies across under one umbrella and run it all with strong governance and processes. Securing data and protecting systems from cyber threats is a key issue and amongst the priority for CIOs today.

What are the Dos and Don’ts for the CIO?

It’s a good question and I have the following suggestions...

1.            Use design thinking approach for any initiative undertaken. Always think from the customers’ viewpoint, their needs, their challenges, and how technology can solve them.

2.            Keep technology and architecture simple.

3.            Lead with examples.

4.            Bring diversity and inclusiveness.

5.            Coach team members to become future leaders.

6.            Be a lifelong learner.

7.            Ensure right architecture and team structure in place to maximize the ROI of any initiative undertaken.

What is the difference between a CIO, CTO, Head of Engineering and CISO?

Like I said, a CIO is expected to keep the lights on, secure data, drive innovation, transformation and adoption.

A CTO is a person who closely works with business to help them change the business model and build products for a new value chain.

A CISO is a head of cybersecurity who’s responsible for securing data, protecting organization from cyberattacks and ensuring cybersecurity compliance.

Depending on the organization size, their internal structure, these roles are done by different people, run in parallel, or done by one or two people.

Is the Indian CIO any different from the global one?

CIOs across the world are the same. They have similar problems to address and get similar opportunities. However, different companies work differently across the globe with respect to governance, processes, empower leadership from the diversity and inclusion standpoint.

At what size of company do you require a CIO?

Technology has become more important than ever; business runs on it in almost all the industries. Earlier only large enterprises used to have a CIO position, but in the past couple of years even mid-size companies have a CIO position, and interestingly smaller companies have also started hiring them.

There is a difference between the duties of CIOs across various sectors and verticals.

But the fundamental role of a CIO remains the same as mentioned above. However, depending on sectors, some companies prefer hiring CIOs with a domain expertise. Some prefers to hire from other industry to get a fresh perspective. Everyone is right in their thought process if the CIO is able to meet and exceed expectations.

aanchalg@cybermedia.co.in