Manikkam V.S., Head-Information Technology, Henkel CAC Pvt Ltd.
 The role of the CIO has changed dramatically in the 27 years since the title was first used. Earlier, the job focus was almost always on the basics of running the IT environment; nowadays, however, the role has evolved into one that requires abundance of IT knowledge.
Not only do CIOs need to have high level expertise when it comes to technology, they also need strategic and transformational qualities of a business leader and the creativity, resourcefulness and self-confidence expected of a high-level executive.
For me, the role of CIO is now definitely a part and parcel of the management team than it once was, and reporting to executive leadership is a routine and integral part of the job.
A CIO needs to be reporting to the CEO. This is necessary in order to make key decisions, get support and momentum to move the business forward. I see this as mandatory: if the CIO doesn’t report to the top management level then the IT team will probably not be perceived as a strategic enabler, but rather as more of a cost-only driver.
Currently the CIOs have duties outside of core technology, such as helping to craft corporate strategy. This includes improving the business by evaluating situations and deciding on necessary actions. The strategy of the CIO should be selling his vision to the management board. Secondly he should be cutting costs, and lastly growing the revenue.
A CIO should be tightly aligned with IT-business strategy. The trick is to be more effective to ensure that you are aligned with the timeline of the transformation of the company. Secondly decide on where you want to invest people, money, technology and process in order to make sure to hit the time-to-value targets.
In addition, a CIO should be a strong believer in showcasing and creating value through this tight IT-business alignment. High-tech CIOs that are competent can help drive revenue by showing proof points and how solutions can be implemented.
Security is another core element of the role of the CIO. Compliance and enterprise risk management is absolutely a top priority for organizations. A CIO should invest properly to address all the related issues and provide flexibility for a holistic program to ensure that key risks are being mitigated.
Security and compliance work together for CIOs as many governance and compliance regulations were spawned from risk management and directly affect security. For many companies regulatory compliance is now part of everything they do. This has allowed the CIO to understand exactly what resources and processes an organization has and to increase efficiency and throughput as a result. It is too soon to tell whether the compliance laws will achieve what they were designed for but they are already offering organizations unexpected benefits, giving the CIO’s an opportunity to take part in company-wide strategic planning.
Ensuring new technology is utilized – particularly when it comes to security – is fundamental. Ideally, a company’s CIO should have the skill to leverage technology and to integrate it with the company’s strategic business goals. With the constant barrage of new and more complex threats, identifying risk in the first place is an ongoing and often ambiguous task.
Recruiting, managing and training staff continue to be the most pressing concerns for CIOs as compared to leapfrogging aligning business and IT, and managing budgets.
Budgets are as tight as ever. Since last year’s CIOs’ biggest concern is still allocation of IT budget. CIOs are striving to keep a really tight control over them, even though they still need innovative IT to keep ahead of the competition. CIOs are seeing savings through standardization of the IT infrastructure so new systems can be financed without increasing budgets.
------------------------ As told to Ashwani Mishra
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