C-level relationships and engagement are key to CIO success highlights Sue Troy in her 2015 article on SearchCIO.
Peter Nichol, head of IT for Access Health CT, suggested that IT needs to “be the business.” That is, the IT department needs to conceive of itself as a vital part of the whole organization, rather than as a separate unit operating under a different mandate. “If we look at ourselves as IT and the business being over there, by default, we’re not the business, we’re simply a cost center. So, we should be eliminated. We should start to crank those costs down to eventually be zero or as close as we can get,” he said. The CIO can combat that idea by regarding IT as a more integral part of the business – and, by extension, by more closely aligning with non-IT peers, Nichol suggested.
Nichol also touched upon the “strength in numbers” theme. “If [the CIO pitches the] value [of a project or strategy by his or herself], it’s going to be a really long-winded sales pitch that won’t result in a lot. If you go in as a team with some of the other partners on the leadership team, you’re in it to win it. … You have a lot better chance of adoption and a successful business outcome.”
References
IBM Executive Exchange (online image). (2015). Retrieved June 19, 2015, from http://www-935.ibm.com/services/be/en/c-suite/
Troy, S. (2015). C-level relationships, engagement key to CIO success. Retrieved June 18, 2015, from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/4500248228/C-level-relationships-engagement-key-to-CIO-success