From tech to strategy: The CIO to CXO shift

The traditional responsibilities of the CIO are expanding beyond the realm of technology and into business strategy. As a result, many CIOs are making the transition from CIO to CXO, taking on a more strategic and holistic view of the organization and its needs.

As technology continues to disrupt and shape the business landscape, the role of the CIO has become more complex and multi-faceted. The modern CIO must now wear multiple hats, balancing technical expertise with a deep understanding of the business and its objectives.

Though the transition has been discussed and diced for the longest time there is still a gap and we need to address the elephant in the room. With the IT roles getting diversified with the evolving landscape into CTO, CISO, CDO etc, the complexity is further intensified.

Arun Gupta -  Board Member, IT Strategy & Digital Transformation Consultant, Entrepreneur, and Former CIO - Cipla, Pfizer & Shoppers Stop in conversation with Minu Sirsalewala, Executive Editor – Special Projects, Dataquest shares views from his expansive experience and rich knowledge on the key drivers behind this transformation and the skills and traits that set successful CXOs apart.

He offers insights and guidance for technology leaders looking to elevate their careers and make a greater impact. Excerpts from the interaction.

Every CXO brings unique expertise to the table and all of them have to work collectively to embed technology into the business. I have always said “Technology is too important for the business to be left only to the CIO”. This is very true today!

Can you tell us about your background and how you transitioned from an IT leadership role to a CXO position?

Starting my career as a Hardware Engineer and observing the leaders (CEOs and EDP Managers) of then (almost 40 years ago), quickly it was evident to me that growth to the top requires a balance of everything IT; i.e. hardware, software, networking, business/domain expertise and loads of soft skills. So I set targets to acquire these and asked my friends and well-wishers (including my reporting manager) on how am I doing. Learning is a continuous process and since then, even today, I continue to invest time to keep abreast with what is happening and how it impacts industries at large.

As years melted into decades and climbing the corporate ladder quickly, the realization dawned upon me that even if you have all the qualities to be a CXO, for you to become one, it is important to build a personal brand and visibility, internally as well as externally in the industry.

Befriending the IT service providers – hardware, software and more, the upcoming technology media industry and IT conferences and seminars, I volunteered to provide comments, interviews, case studies, and write articles for the new age web media publishers. This helped in getting the attention of recruiters as well as made good talking points with other IT & non-IT CXOs.

While the mantle of IT leadership came to me within a decade of my work life and grew from company to company, it took another decade to finally be offered the title of a CXO.

How have you incorporated technology into your new role to drive business growth?

Technology is an integral part of me and that is what I bring to the table; every CXO has to drive business growth and the CIO is no different. In the current digitalized world, every business opportunity or challenge needs a dose of technology and agility to create a solution, faster, better, and cheaper than your competitors. The expectation today is about being a partner to co-create success as a C-team, and those who fail to do so get relegated to managing operations.

How do you see the role of technology evolving in the C-Suite in the next 5 years?

As a board member in one large pharmaceutical company, I observe that every CXO and board member is well aware of the current trends and technologies. They may not know how to apply it to their context, but they are asking questions about the applicability of the new disruptive technology to their industry and what should the management team do to leverage IT faster than others. The conversations are getting specific on how the company stays ahead of the game. So technology is woven into every discussion and it is imperative that the CIO educate the C-Suite on how to stay focused and not get pulled into the technology whirlwind.

Every CXO brings unique expertise to the table and all of them have to work collectively to embed technology into the business. I have always said “Technology is too important for the business to be left only to the CIO”. This is very true today!

Can you discuss a specific instance where you leveraged technology to drive customer experience improvements?

One of the largest home retailers – furniture and homeware – a lot of the merchandise needed to be home delivered. The process of capturing the details of each customer, the characteristics of their home for the delivery, e.g. whether trucks can come into the building, lifts available, etc. was necessary to ensure that the delivery is successful in the first attempt. The entire process was captured on paper, then entered into the system, and finally billed; the entire process could take 45-60 minutes which customers did not like, but had to follow the process.

We did a process review and implemented a system that integrated with the billing system and the core ERP. The store associates were provided 10” Android tabs which were handed over to the customer to enter the details required for home delivery. The time to complete the process end to end came down to 7 minutes! Customers who had shopped earlier and came back were pleasantly surprised with the new process; they complimented the sales associates on the new technology-enabled process and also referred us to their friends and family for shopping. The NPS score went up and so did the sales.

How do you ensure that the technology strategy aligns with the overall business strategy?

The question of alignment is no longer relevant. Business strategy and technology strategy are interwoven for most companies today; they are not independent of each other. Companies that still create business strategies without the involvement of the CIO are going to be the laggards in their ability to leverage technology to their advantage. Off course, the CIO needs to have an equal footing within the team and demonstrate his/her technology prowess in solving business problems or enabling new opportunities. The end goal is about business results.

How do you foster a culture of innovation within your organization?

Innovation happens at the ground level when enabled from the top; each CXO individually and collectively need to allow challenging status quo and listen to ideas about the new way of being. CIOs need not limit the innovative threads to their own department; in my experience ideas can come from across the enterprise. The “not invented here” phenomenon needs to be discarded for real innovation to happen.

So keep an open mind on wherever the ideas come from; listen to them, do not react negatively immediately if it does not align with your frame of reference. Ask which problem/opportunity it will take care of, what will change, is it sustainable and scalable. If reasonable, give them resources to do a pilot to demonstrate the effectiveness. If it works, you have a winner; if it does not work, capture the learning and constraints that led to the negative outcome.

Can you discuss a major technology initiative you have led and its impact on the company?

Public infrastructure projects have a reputation of never completing in time and within budget, and they have lived up to this promise. Nagpur Metro decided to change this with the leadership of the MD & CEO whose vision was to use technology to create a new paradigm in public infrastructure projects.

As a consultant, I helped create the technology architecture to design, build, monitor, and execute the project. We looked globally for technology solutions and innovated by adding a few more to include a digital simulation before the work on the ground starts. It was and is the first of a kind in the country that required significant technology investments never seen in this sector. The unique feature was that apart from the 2D and 3D drawings that are used in construction, we added a 4th dimension of time and cost as the 5th dimension, referred to as 5D-BIM (Building Information Modelling).

Ask which problem/opportunity it will take care of, what will change, is it sustainable and scalable. If reasonable, give them resources to do a pilot to demonstrate the effectiveness. If it works, you have a winner; if it does not work, capture the learning and constraints that led to the negative outcome.

The tech platform helped avoid clashes and ensured alignment of the infrastructure as the project progressed. The end result? The Metro was built within the timeline initially declared and saved on the budget at the same time, a unique achievement. The entire tech stack was adopted by Pune Metro and the new flagship project of the government – Samruddhi Mahamarg!

In your opinion, what are some of the biggest challenges companies face in effectively integrating technology into their customer experience efforts?

Inertia, fear of failure and the unknown are the big factors that prevent change; projects that do not involve the operating staff or the people who will execute the new process end up with challenges when deployed. For the people on the ground, they know one way of working which has brought results thus far, so why change? What if the new way of working does not deliver the results; also insecurity about their role, and continued employment continues to be factors that prevent the effective deployment of technology, especially to customer-

facing initiatives.

Lastly, what advice would you give to IT leaders who aspire to move into a CXO role?

A few tips from my experience:

a.            Be an expert in past, current and upcoming technologies and their use in your chosen industry. With conviction, you should be able to provide a viewpoint on the applicability of these in your company.

b.            Participate in Management meetings and if you have an opinion on a matter even though unrelated to technology, say it; you need to participate and contribute to be seen as a CXO.

c.             Reach out to peers beyond the transactional engagement; have a coffee, talk about their aspirations, and how technology could potentially help them.

d.            Reach out to the ground level to observe how they use the solutions IT has deployed. A lot can be learned by observation and what can be improved. These may be small changes but can have a big impact.

e.            Engage the Board (if you can), most good companies now have at least one Board member who has a technology background. Make this Board member your ally.

f.             Communicate, communicate, communicate – without using tech terms as far as possible

g.            A CXOs place is not in the cabin, it is out where the action is. Go out and find opportunities to make a difference.

h.            Empower your team and give them credit for the good work done, shield them from the brickbats when things do not work out. Teamwork will get you the results that you promise to the company.

i.              Respect and be friends with your external partners; you need them as much as they need you.

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What it takes to become a CIO

A long time back (2009) someone had asked me a question: What does it take to become a CIO? Reproducing the salient points from that post which and others can be found on my blog:

•             You have to want to become one

•             Someone should be willing to hire you as one or promote you to one

•             Ask yourself the questions below:

1.            Do you understand business activities well specific to your industry as well as generically?

2.            Are you good at numbers, budgets, reconciliations, metrics?

3.            Can you confidently present in a management group meeting without being tongue-tied?

4.            Do people within your team and your users trust you?

5.            Can you negotiate well with a vendor or a user?

6.            Are you able to resolve conflict?

7.            Are you able to hold your head high and have a disagreement with your boss without getting beaten up?

8.            Can you talk in a language that non-IT folks can understand?

9.            Are you able to deliver results as promised?

10.          There is no number 10

If the answer to any of the questions above is NO, then work upon making it a yes. If you get more than 2 NOs, then you are not yet ready.

If you got all YES and are not yet a CIO, then go to point 1 and 2. The only other reason can be you are a consultant.

There are training programs now (2023) which can help you fast track your journey to becoming a CIO. These are offered by many Management and Engineering institutes. No recommendations here, choose based on what you believe is best for you.