The CIO has “to be a little bit of everything” and focus on the business
The role of the CIO and the CTO are – at times – interchangeable. Both focus on the IT and technology of a company, and depending on the industry this will be either internally or externally-focused
In Information Age’s pursuit of writing for the CTO and other technology leaders, it is important for us to cover the role of the CIO as well. The CIO and the CTO role, while different, share many of the same characteristics and responsibilities.
“I think it’s very typical to have the CTO be more focused on the product side and the CIO be focused on the internal side. However, that really varies by industry,” said Uri Sarid, CTO, Mulesoft in a previous interview with Information Age.
“We have a lot of customers where there is no such distinguishing. For example in many of the banks, the CIO is responsible for all of the internal technology, whether it’s woven into [external] product offerings or whether it’s used for internal systems.”
The role of the CIO, like the CTO, is changing. To understand this transformation in responsibility, skills required and understanding, Information Age spoke to Mark Hill, Group CIO at Frank Recruitment. Part of his job is to make sure that as a business, Frank Recruitment continues to have access to the best tools and implement the best practices that will help the organisation generate business value.
“The role of a CIO is really hard to put into a single box; you have to be a little bit of everything as a CIO these days,” said Hill.
“The position was already hugely varied. Historically, many CIOs tended to be responsible purely for applications and technology infrastructure — it was all about improving business efficiency, hence cost becoming an overriding factor. Today it’s very different. It’s about driving the effectiveness of business outcomes, by using technology innovation to differentiate yourself from the competition.”
>Read more on How CTOs and CIOs can recruit and build the best teams — Mark Hill, Group CIO, Frank Recruitment
Before the explosion of the internet, the role of IT was primarily focused on improving efficiency and maximising profit in an organisation. As a result, the CIO’s role was predominately back office. “This has all changed,” according to Hill.
“Now the role of IT, and thus the role of the CIO, is to work closely with the business in moving towards disruption and differentiation. The companies that are winning get this and are changing.”
“Today my guess is that CIOs are roughly 50/50 in terms of the types of CIO — Business Innovator vs. Operational IT Stewards. In my opinion, it’s the former type that we’ll see more and more frequently in the future.”
According to Gartner, there are new CTO/CIO personas emerging; the Chief Innovation Guru, the Technology Innovation Officer and the Futurist.
Regarding the CTO (and CIO), their roles are changing in the context of digital business transformation — confirmed the Gartner research.
“All of this means that IT is fast moving from being back office focused support, to a front office focussed differentiator. Today, there is much more opportunity for a CIO to be a business leader, and help push top-line growth,” said Hill.
>Read more on Why the CIO’s role is changing
“So, I’d like to think my role as CIO is to actively deliver value to the company through the use of technology.”
“Yes, we’re maintaining internal systems; yes, we’re overseeing products used by the business; and yes, we’re making plans for the future of our systems. But the primary driver for me as a CIO, is creating business opportunity — everything I do is about using technology to build a foundation for a world-class customer centric outside in business. I run both IT and Business Change —separate but closely intertwined functions — and I spend as much time as possible on things that are going to add real top-line value to the company,” he said.
