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This year, the MIT community is celebrating its 150th anniversary. That’s over a century and a half of knowledge-sharing that has lead to breakthroughs in science and engineering—innovations that have improved both social and economic welfare, year after year.

Graham Rong, SF ’06, has been the chair of the MIT CIO Symposium since 2009. Dean David Schmittlein noted that this event brings together MIT Sloan’s leading research and education with many great CIOs, business leaders, and innovators from around the world. It is a platform to engage in problem-solving dialogue, gain strategic insights, and obtain solutions to improve diverse organizational and business issues for the present and well into the future. 

Recently, Graham shared some of his thoughts regarding business trends, being a leader in innovation, and how his time at the MIT Sloan continues to shape his perspective.

Q. Refl ecting on your experience at MIT Sloan and the development of the CIO Symposium, what would you say were the drivers for the past themes and topics? Were the ideas based on the economic climate or technology?

A. We have a different symposium theme every year. It is driven by industry trend-setters in global CIO leadership and corporate IT. But the common thread carried through the years is that it is always forwardlooking in nature. A small group of us usually spends weeks drafting a theme based on research and reviews with thought leaders, both in academia and industry. Ideas for specifi c panel topics are based on the landscape of the economy and tomorrow’s technologies

For example, last year’s theme, “Top-Line Growth and Bottom-line Results,” refl ected the initial stage of our economic recovery. Turning a corner means being aware of and ready for the best opportunity to glean top-line or optimal growth. A recovery period is a time of opportunities and options for fresh avenues, but one still needs to focus on the current (realistic) business operation.

Q. The subject of leadership has always been a recurring discussion topic at these symposiums. What leadership qualities did you learn through your MIT Sloan experience and what are the skills needed to lead innovation in business?

A. The academic research and entrepreneurial experience provided me with an excellent balance between technical aptitude and business acumen.

Read more --> http://mitsloan.mit.edu/pdf/NewsAtMITSloan_Issue202.pdf

I read an article today in the Wall Street Journal by Michael Totty titled The View From the CIO's Office: Three chief information officers on the challenges—and opportunities—they face. I found the article, and the CIOs’ insights – to be useful and thought provoking to share with the Center community.

The article captures a roundtable discussion with three leading CIOs: Norm Fjeldheim, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Qualcomm Inc., a wireless-technology company in San Diego; Filippo Passerini, President of Global Business Services and CIO at Procter & Gamble, Co., a global consumer-products company based in Cincinnati; and Frank Wander, Senior Vice President and CIO at Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America, New York.

The article provides excellent insights into the ever-changing role of the CIO from 3 of the most notable IT executives in our industry today. They share some interesting observations for all CIOs and for C-suite executives in general:

• Keeping the lights on and reducing costs is now only table-stakes (necessary but not sufficient) for a high performing IT organization;
  

• Working with internal and external business partners to provide the right information at the right time based upon a clear understanding of their business needs and objectives is a critical success factor within the new normal - essentially business enabled by IT rather than the other way around;
  

• Many of the innovative IT programs (we used to call them "discretionary") which are often the first to be cut when the budget gets tight (which is all of the time), can be funded out of the savings generated by driving operating efficiencies;
  

• Managing the IT change agenda is not about changing IT, but rather it is about enabling business transformation.
  

It is also clear from these brief snapshots that the organizations in which these CIOs operate really get the strategic importance of what IT -- when properly leveraged -- can deliver in terms of competitive differentiation, market share, revenue, earnings and sustainable business growth.

There is definitely a chicken and egg dynamic at work here where the organization needs to be ready, willing and able to embrace the benefits of a well-run technology agenda while the CIO and their IT organization needs to develop the credibility and earn the trust that fosters and continues to nurture that readiness. The CIOs interviewed and their organizations have cracked that code. Now if we could just figure out how to enable more organizations and their CIOs to make better omelets...

What challenges and opportunities do you face in your organization? And how do you recommend that we enable more organizations to make better omelets?

CIO 2.0

Pim van der Horst, Managing Partner (COO/CIO) Addition Knowledge House (a KAS BANK company)

Introduction

Times are changing… As a matter of fact, continuously change has become a reality. How is today’s CIO dealing with change? Is the CIO changing or is his role changing?

In my view, CIOs need to change dramatically. Here is my view on the journey and what is next for the CIO role: the CIO 2.0.

CIO 1.0

The “first generation” CIOs had been IT Managers. Then when it became “en vogue” to become a Chief (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Procurement Officer , Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Technology Officer, etc.) there had to be a Chief Information Officer, CIO! So, the IT Manager/Director changed his business card. His job and responsibilities stayed the same; he or she just had a new title.  These early CIOs were what I would call the CIO 1.0.  The CIO 1.0 concentrated on keeping IT running, focusing on internal operations. In this environment, it was challenging for IT leaders to reach beyond the scope of day-to-day IT operations to get involved in other aspects of leading the business. When the CIO 1.0 tried to get connected with the other “chiefs”, he often found it difficult to communicate with anyone besides the CFO and the COO.  And in the case of the CFO and the COO, in many cases one of them was his direct boss. For those CIOs who aspired to connect as peers with the CFO, the COO, and the rest of the “chiefs” to get involved in running the business, many of them struggled. Only a few CIO’s made it into the boardroom…

Getting to the boardroom

How could the CIO 1.0 get into the boardroom in this environment? Not by doing the same old job: keep IT running and saying “no” to commercial projects…

One of the challenges for the CIO 1.0 is that when he was successful (i.e. keeping IT running at a high percentage of availability) it was difficult to showcase the potential to help the business, since a well-running IT function is largely invisible. Then as technology continued to rapidly evolve and data management began to explode, the domain of the CIO 1.0 expanded. The CIO 1.0 had more visibility as these changes profoundly impacted the way the business was run. He (or she) was educated in a “hardware” and “infrastructure” world with more influence on the enterprise: his (or her) systems were running on his servers, in his datacenter. Working in this environment gave the CIO more confidence and in this environment he was able to show his (added) value.

Change is there, again!

Then things started to change again for the CIO. Decentralized IT. Knowledgeable end-users. Many external IT-services suppliers. And worst of all: the Internet.  These organizational and technology advancements disrupted the carefully managed world of the IT organization. The CIO 1.0 tried to regain control by demanding strict rules regarding the use of IT across the enterprise. This worked… for a short while.  At the same time, he had to build a “bridge” between his IT department and the end user (internal customer): business-IT alignment became a top priority.  CIOs started to try to speak the language of business and connect to the end users, but were at the same time confounded by the challenge that IT’s  “internal customers” were now buying IT services through the Internet and exploiting the opportunities now available on the Internet without informing the CIO.

It is not completely fair to say that the CIO 1.0 didn’t (try to) innovate or didn’t lead  challenging IT transformation projects. Some examples that resonated with the C-suite were:

• Virtualization (of servers and desktops) or “doing the same with less, by centralizing and consolidating IT processing”;
• Outsourcing;
• Back-sourcing or cancelling the previous outsourcing.

The CIO 1.0 kept IT running, but still his (internal) customers were not satisfied. Instead of promoting and supporting technology innovation, the CIO 1.0 has become one of the major hurdles in IT transformation.

CIO 2.0: rise!

As these changes to technology and the marketplace continue and accelerate, I believe a new CIO is needed- one focused on business priorities and enterprise value and transformation. But what are the core competencies to enable this CIO 2.0?

Some trends are emerging to answer this question. A renowned head hunter has put the following text on its website:

Given the Chief Information Officer’s (CIO) responsibility for the “central nervous system” of the corporation, filling a CIO vacancy is one of the most critical leadership decisions an enterprise can face. While an acceptable CIO might be able to reliably “keep the lights on”, a world-class CIO will be able to leverage information technology to drive process improvements, cost reductions, actionable competitive intelligence and revenue expansion opportunities. Because of the increased demands for talent, skilled CIOs are continually presented with opportunities, and so even companies currently thoroughly satisfied with their current IT leadership need to have a well thought out approach to CIO succession whether through promotion from within the IT function, rotation of a non-IT executive from the business to bring a user’s perspective to the role or through external recruitment.

It is clear that CIOs need to play a key role in the strategic direction of a company, and in order to do this effectively they need to understand the business and the elements that drive the business. Communication skills are of the utmost importance. For different organizations in different industries, different communication skills apply.  In particular, the CIO 2.0 needs to be able to communicate effectively across the enterprise, and with all of the other “Chiefs” in the C-suite, in business language and from a business perspective. In fact, some companies have now appointed business people (without much technical back ground) as the CIO… These have discovered that technology skills are less important than the skills to understand how the business works and communicate with the rest of the enterprise.

Another indicator of the new business-oriented CIO 2.0 is the set of priorities he or she has. One CIO of a Fortune 50 company that I admired, at one point published his 5 top priorities as:

• aligning business and IT
• integrating the enterprise
• driving long-term revenue growth
• fueling innovation
• developing employee skills

One thing that is most notable is that there is not much technology in this CIO’s priorities… They focus on connecting with the business, increasing competitive advantage, looking for opportunities. In short, the listed priorities show a common factor: transformation!  As I see it, the CIO 2.0 is a transformer- a transformer of the enterprise to a new level of competitive advantage and business success. And on a final note, I would also say that when this new CIO has finished the transformation he should move on to the next role: the CIO 2.0 is not the right person to keep IT running. The CIO 2.0 drives transformation, which drives the business.

CIO 2.0: forget IT, think business!

My closing question to Center members: what are your observations on CIO 2.0? Is your role evolving to business transformation leader?

On behalf of the MITSloan CIO Symposium’s organizers, sponsors and partners, you are cordinally invited to visit The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium - Video On Demand. It's Free..

If you missed the live event this past May, it's a great opportunity to enjoy and benefit from the all of the Symposium’s seminal and innovative discussions and talks served to you by Symposium panels and speakers, on video,on demand, right now. By registering, free of charge, you will have access to thirteen engaging sessions, covering the most compelling topics influencing CIO’s and senior technology executives today.

You are invited compliments of the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium’s organizers, sponsors and partners. Access the complete 2010 Symposium on video ondemand...  Click here

Our mission is to explore how innovative technologies and leading-edge academic research can help address the practical challenges faced in today’s changing volatile business environment and economy. We trust that this new addition will be an important contribution to the IT and Business community globally. Senior IT decision makers engage with each other and with thought leaders from academia to find better ways to sustain their leadership in the effective use of technology to improve business performance.  This is where the future is made.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any question.

I recently read a Forbes article Solving National IT Issues: We must address national strategic issues from a technology--not political--standpoint, written by CIO blogger, Mike Schaffner.  While I respect Mike’s point that issues cannot be addressed from a political standpoint, I think he is missing the mark slightly, and doing a disservice to all CIOs.  The more I read and reflected on the article, the more it seemed to me that this is a movie that we have seen many times before.

Forget, for a moment, that we are talking about the CIO of the United States of America.  Imagine the more familiar context of a huge enterprise that is 200+ years old, complete with policies, procedures and methodologies – ways and means of doing business that give new meaning to the term "legacy systems", not to mention business silos.  Could there possibly exist a more complex (polite term for dysfunctional) environment in which to effectively transact business?

Now bring a newly appointed CIO into a newly created position – enterprise CIO, and by the way, define the newly created position in a way where it has an incredible sphere of influence (reporting to the CEO of one of the world's largest enterprises) yet has limited to no real authority, i.e. the line of business (silo) CIOs do not actually report to the new enterprise CIO.  When all of that dust settles, we have a glorious position with lots of responsibility (or at least expectation) and limited to no authority.

Now surround all of this with the worst economic condition that any of us (c-suite included) have seen in our lifetime.

Given that scenario, do you know anyone that would focus on why digital rights management is an important priority?  Not to make excuses – in spirit, Mike Schaffner has focused on a good set of important technology issues.  His list of strategic priorities is an excellent one.  His observation that Vivek Kundra has largely focused on "keeping the lights on and reducing expenses" (my words, not his) is, from what I have seen, correct.  At the last government CIO roundtable that I attended with the IEG and Public CIO Magazine, Vivek Kundra in fact presented his IT agenda and was most proud of the fact that he eliminated $80 billion in government IT projects that appeared to be either misdirected, not needed or so far off the tracks that they could not be saved.  He was able to then both cut expenses and re-direct a portion of the savings to other more productive efforts.

Sound like a familiar theme?  This is an example (on steroids) of why we created the Center for CIO Leadership – to help CIOs rise above the role of IT cost center manager and to transform themselves into better business (or government) people.  While I don't think that we ever envisioned transforming an enterprise quite as large and complex as the government of the United States, I believe that our understanding of the challenges, the opportunities and, to a growing extent, some of the solutions that we are developing are completely applicable.

If you were CIO of the US, what would you do?  Would you focus more on strategy, technology or politics?  Feel free to respond and share your opinions and suggestions…

The Center for CIO Leadership published a summary of our findings on recent research with Center members on how CIOs are effectively building the business case for technology in the context of the “new normal” economic environment.

CIOs find themselves being called upon to create efficiencies and at the same time they are being asked to leverage IT to support top-line revenue growth and to drive sustainable business value.  This current business environment or “new normal” has increased the need for CIOs to speak in the language of business and to give priority to projects that contribute more to the business.

In response to our Center members’ needs to more effectively understand the business value of technology, and build a compelling case for technology investment, the Center reached out to CIOs to hear their perspectives on approaches and best practices for building the business case for technology. The Center’s research piece examines insights on:

• The critical elements CIOs include in building the business case
• The most effective measures of value CIOs use to communicate to the business
• The strategies CIOs employ to work with business leaders to build the case for technology investments
• The approaches CIOs take to leverage relationships with external partners or customers to build the business case
• Advice and best practices CIOs recommend to take action

For additional information on communicating the value of technology to your C-Suite peers, see the results from a Center research effort* with CXOs on actions CIOs can take to improve their ability to speak the language of business.

For further insights on defining, measuring and communicating business value, see the results of additional Center research* with CIOs on this important topic.

* Note: You must be a CIO member of the Center to access the additional materials.  Join now.