CIO: Role modelling what?
It’s a tricky time to be a CIO. Are you a technology manager or are you the Chief Insight Officer. If you were to attend a ‘CIO party’, would you actually have anything in common with the other guests? The absence of an ISO specification for CIO means that anyone can call themselves one. Even the Wikipedia definition implies a focus on IT rather than information.
So if we don’t really know what a CIO is for, we are not in a position to advise the next generation of CIOs. This lack of clarity leads to mutations such as Chief Digital Officer or the role being populated by people with no information management skills but with a boardroom-friendly face.
Some of what I do involves coaching CIOs and next generation CIOs but even that is really just my take on the role.
We need a global standard for the role of CIO. Any thoughts on who might take on this project? Fix this and you fix a lot of problems that are stalling progress in both business and society.
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I don’t think you can have a global standard for the role of CIO Ade. It varies so much from company to company dependant upon size, industry, technology focus/perception etc. It would be like asking all premiership Strikers to perform exactly the same role. However, I do think orgs constantly make hiring mistakes at CIO level yes, this is due to a lack of real understanding of what they want vs what they need.
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Thanks for the comment Ross.
I would be tempted to push for a global standard but to be defined sufficiently such that regulators and investors understand what the CIO does but no so much that a small enterprise feels constricted by the definition.
So ‘all strikers are to score goals’ would clarify their primary role plus it would help them realise that they will not be deemed a success if they focused on goal keeping activities.