INFORMATION TECHNOLOGYLance B. Eliot, Feature Editor, Eliot & Associates CIO: YOU'VE JUST BEEN HIRED, NOW WHAT?by Lance B. Eliot, Feature Editor, Eliot & Associates Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are playing musical chairs. As the job market for CIOs begins to heat-up again, these in-demand Information Technology executives are finding themselves leaving the safety of their current jobs and heading to the unchartered waters of a job at a different company with different rules, and often a different viewpoint of the role of I.T. and the CIO. For many job-changing I.T. managers, the shock of leaving the old and going to the new can cause them to falter in the first critical weeks and months at their new employer. Having been at their previous firm for several years, accustomed to knowing ``who is who'' and ``what to do,'' they now find themselves groping with the who's, what's, where's, when's, why's, and how's, of their present firm and position. Adding to the problem, these seasoned I.T. executives are often switching across industries, moving from a CIO job for an oil company to the CIO position in an insurance firm, or moving from the winding-down aerospace industry to the wound-up entertainment industry. In the process, these industry-hopping CIO's must cope with new business practices, new terminology, and different ways of exploiting I.T. for the particular needs of their newly acquired industry. The very fact that they landed a job, often with high pay and great potential, offers a moment of excitement and relief for even the most ego-strong CIOs. On the other hand, landing a job and actually holding a job are usually two different matters. There is nothing more discouraging than getting the job of your dreams and then losing it after discovering that you could not manage to keep the job (especially painful is the corresponding embarrassment among your family, peers, friends, etc.). After helping a number of job-switching CIOs in making the transition to their new firm, I have assembled a handful of helpful tips on strategies for settling in and making your new employer into your long-term employer. Keep in mind that this list is just the start of what should become your own CIO transition strategy job/career plan. 1. Evaluate Your Direct Reports and Assemble Your Team The mark of any good manager is the talent and fit of the team he/she assembles. In the CIO job, you need to have a solid manager handling the daily operations issues of your mainframe, networks, PC's and the rest of your I.T. architecture. If the CIO becomes bogged down trying to deal with operational matters (because of an inadequate I.T. operations manager), the rest of I.T. and the immersion of I.T. into the rest of the business will falter. Likewise, if operations falls apart, the CIO takes the heat for not keeping the business running. The solution is to put the right manager into the I.T. operations job and then let the CIO focus attention elsewhere. The same argument can be made for all of the other top I.T. management jobs that report to the CIO. A CIO needs a good applications development manager, a good support manager, and so on. When you take a CIO job, you will have to rapidly size-up the direct reports that you inherit, decide which ones to keep and groom, and which ones to let go and replace. Any undue delay will force the CIO into becoming focused on the internal practices of the I.T. organization, diverting precious attention from other, equally pressing issues. 2. Learn the Business Now If the CIO has jumped into a new industry, every effort should be made to learn about that industry. Some CIO's believe that they can wait to learn about the industry, or merely learn it as they go along in their normal course of duties, but this is a faulty assumption. The CIO must walk, talk, and think the terminology, practices, directions of their industry and understand where I.T. fits into the competitive posture of their industry. The users of I.T. in your firm will not tolerate for long a CIO that does not grasp the key aspects of the business. I recall one CIO who still could not converse readily in the language of his firm's colleagues after eight months of being at his new job (in this instance, it was an entertainment firm and such phrases as ``over the line,'' ``sandwich package'' and other figures of speech are common and expected, yet the CIO stumbled upon hearing each one). If necessary, a CIO should take special night courses, read books on the industry, subscribe and read industry publications, and do everything someone learning a foreign language might do to become familiar with the language and customs of a new country. 3. Scrutinize Present and Future I.T. Projects Find out the status of all the various I.T. projects that are being undertaken in your new firm. For past projects that failed, find out why. Tap into the history of the organization to assess what might work, or not work, in the future. Determine the status of future projects that are currently being planned. The CIO must catch future projects before they fail, otherwise he/she will be blamed for their failure (even if a predecessor started the failing action). Also, look at projects that are not using I.T. It is possible that your predecessor neglected some projects and did not see the value in infusing I.T. into them (the new CIO might be the hero for recognizing the I.T. need). 4. Identify Quick Wins People throughout the organization will begin to ask ``why did we bring in that new CIO?'' if all the CIO does is look around and learn about the business. As soon as practical, the new CIO should find areas where a quick fix can bring rewards in internal goodwill within the organizationþperhaps the adoption of a rapid prototyping technique to move along a development project that was otherwise bogged down, or the enactment of an I.T. help desk where there was none before, etc. 5. Spend Time Getting to Know People Some CIO's are fixated on the technology side of I.T. and spend most of their effort dealing with technology issues. When coming into a new organization, spend time with people. The honeymoon period will gradually fade, so take advantage of the opportunity to have lunch with the COO, the CFO, the head of marketing, and all the other key players in the firm. You have a great excuse to meet with them, and will not yet have any axes that must be grinded. 6. Separate Yourself from Your Predecessor The new CIO will invariably be compared to the preceding CIO. Try to stop the comparison, otherwise everyone will see the same failings in the new as they did in the old. Steer clear of the same old committees and other apparatus established by the predecessor. Create a new set of committees and apparatus that will distinguish the new CIO from the past baggage. 7.Get Going on I.T. Strategic Planning The new CIO needs to articulate a vision of where I.T. is headed in the organization. Do so by launching an effort to perform I.T. strategic planning. Also, hook the I.T. strategic plan into the overall corporate strategic plan. 8. Begin Lower Level Clean-up As the new CIO establishes the new top I.T. team, he/she must begin to find those I.T. personnel who are the biggest annoyances and cause the most friction between I.T. and the users of I.T. Taking strong action related to the malcontents will send a strong message to the rest of I.T. and to the others that the relationship between I.T. and users is going to become an important focus of the new CIO. 9.Figure out Friends Versus Foes Other executives in the firm will undoubtedly have their own agendas and perceptions of the I.T. function and the CIO. Some of the CIO's colleagues may appear to be friendly, while actually trying to sabotage I.T. behind the scenes. A savvy CIO must quickly determine the friends versus the foes, and then establish organizational mechanisms to reward the friends and decrease the impacts of the foes. 10. Bring in a Trusted Ally Having served as a trusted ally of many job-switching CIO's, I have been able to navigate throughout the newly joined organization (as a consultant) and have helped the CIO determine where the friends and foes are, assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current staff, assist in assembling the right team, and so on. In other words, the CIO will need at least one trusted ally who can serve as an extra pair of eyes and ears about the new organization. Whether the CIO hires someone from his/her previous team or brings in a trusted consultant, there is great value in having another party on your side in the face of a whole new sea of people and organization politics. Conclusion For all those CIOs who have gotten a new job, I say congratulations. For those same CIOs that want to keep their job, follow my top ten list and you just might be around a year or two from now. Good luck!
Remember that your input is welcomed. If you have projects addressing the information technology area, and you would like to share this with readers of "Information Technology", please write to Dr. Eliot, Eliot & Associates, |