Initial journey of A CIO - Nine Steps For Wiring In Success

While people know that the role of the Chief Information Officer is integral to the company's success, so much of what a CIO does to keep the business running occurs behind the scenes or at a level that most employees and executives do not understand.

The early months of a CIO tenure is a crucial time to learn about a company's culture and critical issues, shape an agenda for change, build relations with peers and senior leaders, and make decisions on people, budgeting, and other matters that will provide a solid foundation for the future.

In this section, we dive into the nine essential steps critical to the starting phase or the 1st 100 days when a CIO joins an organization. By embarking on this journey, a CIO can harness the tools he will need to shape the organization to newer heights.

1. Start the first 100 days before your first day

Use the interview process to understand organizational dynamics and expectations.

Know and interact with the organizational hierarchy to develop the markings of an action plan.

2. Clarify and strengthen your mandate

Understand what is expected of you and how you will be measured, for example, with regard to new business capabilities, cost targets, automation levels, and projects to fix. Set clear expectations with the CEO and other stakeholders on the levers you must have control over. 

3. Build relationships with business unit executives and agree upon priorities

This is the phase to create an impression and make new alliances within the company.

Meet with business unit heads and key executives, such as client account managers and R&D leaders. Focus on the business imperatives that IT can enable or transform with regard to channels, customer relations, and products.

4. Understand the upside and downside

Understand the specific role of technology in the industry and how it creates value. Study the best and most admired users of technology in your industry. What do they do that your company does not?

5. Develop the plan

Create transparency on performance and health. Develop a fact base not only on IT performance—cost levels, service levels, headcount, and critical projects—but also on IT health concerning architecture, capabilities, culture, and delivery.

Understand your technical assets and benchmark them against best practices. Consider technological discontinuities, such as cloud computing, mobility, and social media, and study how to leverage them.

6. Build your team

Start with organizational design. Incumbent team members might be effective in their current roles but not in a new structure. 

Take some risks. Consider a range of options, for example, external hires and transfers from business roles. Promote unrecognized high performers.

7. Rally the IT organization

Establish trust early by communicating a vision for IT. Give people compelling reasons to support your cause. Develop a simple stump speech that everyone can understand. Set bold aspirations. Link business success to IT success.

8. Demonstrate leadership through visible results and actions

Find some quick wins. Killing off an ineffective sacred cow project can be an effective way to demonstrate leadership rapidly. Initiating outsourcing and offshoring deals can have the same effect.

Assess the project portfolio and the business benefits it delivers:

• Which projects must be cancelled because of misalignment with business priorities, have no clear business case, or have made no visible progress in six months?
• To deliver timely results, which projects must get extra resources because of a mismatch between requirements and resources? Which projects must be rescoped to meet a critical milestone for the business?
• Respond thoughtfully to “blockers” in the organization. Change will surface these blockers, and your initial response will shape your perception.

9. Continue your personal journey

Invest in yourself. Recognize that a new role brings a need for new skills and behaviors. Set an agenda for personal development. Educate yourself in the business areas you need to improve. Draw on internal and external sources to learn the business fundamentals.

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