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AIA

Understand your IT counterpart

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7th Dec 2009
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With such high stakes involved, the organisational boundaries between finance and IT have always been subject to executive friction, often arising from not just technical and business misunderstandings, but the clash of cultures that can occur between the different functions.

Recently, our sister site Finance Week explored the Finance-IT relationship with Gordon Lovell-Read, the chief of specialist training organisation CIO Development. From his work with senior technology executives, Lovell-Read has identified four different types of CIO. Understanding their characteristics and knowing how best to approach them can make a real difference to building a successful relationship.

“Identifying which category an IT executive falls into has already proven to be of great use to them in building their strengths and addressing areas for improvement. Making the same level of understanding available to finance directors will unlock new insights into the dialogue with, and deliverables from the IT executive,” said Lovell-Read.

What follows is a short summary of his findings. The links in the article can take you through to fuller descriptions originally published in Finance Week’s articles.

CIO Development’s research categorised senior technology managers into the following four categories, based on their personality types, behaviours and work experiences, the most obvious difference is that the first two types are company outsiders and the other two are company insiders.

The Paratrooper CIO
An experienced technology executive, who has built up skills mostly in other organisations. They come to the role with a mandate for change and a track record that shows they can deliver. You can anticipate a clinical decision-maker who will follow through in spite of potential personal risks. They may ruffle feathers on arrival and prod around to take soundings and assess the surrounding powerbase and will set an agenda for change in succeeding years. “Life with a paratrooper will often be uncomfortable and, when they outrun their change brief, they move on,” commented Lovell-Read. “Needless to say, the paratrooper is a firm favourite with the recruitment agencies with the opportunity they bring for repeat placement fees.”

Managing the Paratrooper - as long as you provide tangible, public support, you will find the Para-CIO a willing lieutenant hungry for the opportunity to change the business. Given the disruption they can cause, bringing in an outsider is the best option when a business has run out of options and accepts the need for radical, and possibly painful, change.

The Consultant CIO
An experienced general business executive, who’s experience has come mostly in other organisations. “The consultant will probably be the person who knows best what to do and gets on with delivering it in the least disruptive way consistent with the required outcome,” said Lovell-Read. Typically someone with experience of your business sector and good contacts and customer focus, the consultant will approach IT transformation through the application of management logic.

Managing the Consultant CIO - A good consultant CIO can will be a good listener able to elicit sensitivities and needs from their surroundings. Help them overcome any internal resistance as quickly as possible and to let them take a leadership role and keep the door open for them to share intelligence. This type of CIO is a good bet when methodical, systematic changes are required, in contrast to the “burning platform” scenarios more suitable for Paratroopers.

The Professional CIO
The Professional CIO is an experienced technology executive who has a good track record within your organisation. They know their team, the key players across the business and should have an intuitive sense of what is likely to work or not. They should provide you with a safe pair of hands, but may have limited knowledge of how other companies achieve success or be closely tied to existing policies and practices and be less willing to take risks.

Managing the Professional CIO - when gaps in capability arise, Professionals will benefit
from coaching and injections of new ideas, for example from competitors, suppliers or consultants. An organisation will get maximum benefit from the Professional CIO after periods of instability when the company needs a period of consolidation, when these characters can rebuild damaged relationships. Finance managers should encourage them to become more proactive across the business. “Managed well, this CIO’s emotional engagement to the cause will continue to strengthen,” said Lovell-Read.

The Executive CIO
The Executive CIO will be someone who has spent most of their executive career within your company, but with minimal experience in the technology function. They will know the company’s history of IT success and failure and may have strong views on the company’s strategy and the role for technology. The Executive may have been a vociferous critic of previous IT regimes and will have strong views on how the function should be fixed. On the downside, they could potentially be over-reliant on advice from a resentful IT team. While they will have a good feel for the business and its objectives, their lack of technical expertise can reduce their ability to deliver.

Managing the Executive CIO

More than any other type, the executive IT leader needs space to absorb reliable, independent sources of expertise to challenge the IT function and beef it up. The best time to appoint an Executive CIO is after a long period of perceived IT misalignment - but this type of CIO typically stays in post for the shortest time. Get clear terms of engagement up front covering what will be achieved in what timescales and then what the exit strategy will be to reintegrate a valuable executive into their next role.

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By 3569787
03rd May 2016 16:42

The board may need to look at itself!

;

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By User deleted
15th Dec 2009 09:04

One such story

One of the big 4 had a non-IT partner placed in overall charge of the firms IT.

The subject of backups & security arose with the need to safely retain the backup data. Accordingly this 'expert' issued an edict about data safes.

He was rather stumped when asked in an open meeting whether the departments should buy a DOS or Windows data safe

Thereafter most staff regarded him in this light

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