Australian CIO Summit 2012: Bridging the Gap between CIO and the Board by David Ekert

Bridging the Gap between CIO and the Board

David EkertSenior Consultant

#deciosummitJuly 2012

Senior Consultant

Questions

Any questions or feedback during the presentation (or after)

Tweet using #deciosummit

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Tweet using #deciosummit

July 2012

Who’s here?

• How many of you are Chief Information Officers?

• How many of you have direct engagement with your Board?

• How many of your CEOs come from a CIO background?

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from a CIO background?

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Introduction

• Board role is to develop and implement business strategy, with all that that

entails

• CIOs have a role to contribute their expertise in management of

Information and Communications Technology to support the Board

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Information and Communications Technology to support the Board

• But is that all ……..

The Board Challenge

• Legal responsibility to govern and ensure compliance

• Growth – strategically and operationally

• Sustainability

• How does CIO contribute to supporting the Board to meet these challenges?

• Is Board exposure limited to budget submissions or explaining performance

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• Security

• Strategy

• Maximising value while minimising risk

explaining performance problems?

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CIO - Now

Your technology landscape will feature some or all of:

• Internet growth

• Cloud

• Social Media

• How do you see these?

• Enablers or threats?

Is this your only landscape?

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• Social Media

• SAAS

• IAAS

• Outsourcing

• Hosting

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Is this your only landscape?

The CIO Challenge

• Become more than a contract manager

• Become part of company strategic management

• Become an input to planning, not an output of it

• Describe your profile

– Service Provider

– Cost Centre

– Key Contributor

– Strategic Partner

– Trusted Advisor

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not an output of it – Trusted Advisor

– BUSINESS MANAGER?

How does your profile compare with that of your CFO?

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YOUR challenge is to identify where you can

contribute and prove where you add value.

Here are some ideas

Three Streams of Value

• Finance – value for $$ in delivery of capability

• Product delivery – as part of the supply chain

• Information and knowledge management


Value for Money

• Even in outsourced arrangements – CIOs are in the best position to judge VfM

• This implies that you need to measure and monitor the value to the business of your delivery

• Large projects and their risk

• Higher relative risk

• Lack of company experience in large system implementations

• Remember – you will have a

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to the business of your delivery arrangements

• A solid Enterprise Architecture can support this – linking ICT capability to business objectives

• Responsibility for EA cannot be outsourced

• Remember – you will have a view of all company processes

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The Value Challenge

• Get right across VfM modelling, strategy and business case development

• Understand your business and its objectives

• Understand how to identify and

• Talk to the Board - “this is how we deliver our technology and this is why this arrangement

delivers value/minimises risk to

the business”.

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• Understand how to identify and measure business benefits

• Take accountability for delivering value

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Product Delivery

• More and more – products are being delivered by ICT in some form

• Many of you will be part of the supply chain

• If you can provide ways of doing

• Porter’s Value Chain model

• In many cases, you have moved from a supporting role into the Value Chain

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• If you can provide ways of doing that better, is that not a business benefit that will make the Board listen?

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Product Delivery Challenge

• Get close to the marketers

• Explore technology and sort through the noise to provide advice on how you can enable better delivery

• Don’t jump on the fad bus

• Talk to the Board – “this is how we are delivering our services and this is what our customers

are saying or this is how much

we have saved by doing

business online”.

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• Don’t jump on the fad bus

• Don’t wait to be asked!

business online”.

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Information Management

• Perhaps the biggest challenge.

• How to turn Data into Information and then into Knowledge

• “Information Glut” – 40% of organisations in Australia/NZ

• This is not about tweets and emails

• It is about sifting through the data – what’s current, relevant and valuable.

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organisations in Australia/NZ now suffering from this

• Economic cost estimated at $3 billion in Australia – per year

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Information Management Challenge

• Capitalise on the tools and technology you have to turn data into knowledge

• Talk to the Board – “here’s what information that’s out there about us, our industry, competitors etc and here is why

it is important to you”


Conclusions

• Many challenges for CIOs to move beyond the back office and into the Value Chain

• Others have done it – look at the influence of CFOs

• CIO challenge is to get in front

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• CIO challenge is to get in front of the Board

• CIO needs to become a Business Manager

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Strategies for CIOs

• Network widely – your senior management peers can become your strongest advocates

• Find out from your colleagues what has worked well with the Board

• You are part of the Executive Team – you can help drive the culture of the Executive team and the business

• Don’t forget your team and your customers

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Board

• Write some articles in your company intranet or newsletter – about how you are delivering business benefits

• Honestly assess your skills and where they may need broadening

customers

• Always focus on business outcomes and benefits

• Frame your case in the context of the organisation’s strategy, goals and objectives

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Understand Board Dynamics

• Understand the Board politics

• Find out about your Board members – what do they like

• It’s OK (and necessary) for you to understand the technology but you need to communicate to

• Don’t assume that you will be the most important item on Board agendas.

• Make sure the Board knows if you are seeking approval or just informing them of something

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but you need to communicate to the Board in business terms (and speak English).

• Establish a Board sub-Committee for ICT and Information Management

informing them of something

• Make every minute of your presentations count (you may not have much time to capture and keep their attention)

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Finally

• You need to earn your right to be part of the highest level of business management

• It’s just like selling anything else:

– Identify/create the need

– Sell the benefit

BUT THE

ACCOUNTANTS

HAVE DONE IT!

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– Sell the benefit

– Deliver!

• CIOs coming through a technology background are not typically good at this.

HAVE DONE IT!

July 2012

Questions?

• Ask now

• Tweet using #deciosummit

• Tweet direct to @davidekert1


Thank You
