The CIO Imperative: Customer Experience, Agility and Scale
I was pleasantly surprised when my DisrupTV co-host Ray Wang, CEO and founder of Constellation Research, informed me that Dion Hinchcliffe had joined his firm. I consider Ray and Dion as two of the very best and most respected software enterprise analysts and thought leaders. Both are also two of my favorite follows on Twitter because of the incredible quality and quantity of content and personal engagement. To learn more about CIO and digital business transformation, Ray and I invited Hinchcliffe to join us on DisrupTV, a weekly thought leadership show focused on business, leadership and innovation, featuring Fortune 1,000 CXOs, successful startup founders, venture capitalists, and technology/media analysts.
Dion Hinchcliffe is an internationally recognized business strategist, bestselling author, enterprise architect, industry analyst, and noted keynote speaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in digital strategy, the future of work, and enterprise IT. Hinchcliffe is currently Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research. Hinchcliffe is a recognized industry expert on the topics of digital transformation, digital workplace, social collaboration, API strategy, social business, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), online business models, CIO issues, digital business, and next-generation enterprises.
Hinchcliffe’s thought leadership can be found on ZDNet, ebizQ, On Digital Strategy, and the Enterprise Irregulars. He also co-authored Web 2.0 Architectures for O’Reilly as well as the bestselling Social Business by Design. He was recently identified, through data analysis by Robert Half Technology, as one of the top 3 people mentioned most by CIOsworldwide. Industry analytics firm Onalytica ranks Hinchcliffe as the #2 influencer globally on the subject of digital transformation. He has keynoted or spoken at hundreds of leading industry conferences Hinchcliffe is the best follow on Twitter (@dhinchcliffe) for business leaders responsible for digital transformation.
In the digital age, what are the characteristics of a great CIO? According to Hinchcliffe, today’s successful CIOs have moved away from being ‘Dr. No’ and controlling to being more inclusive and collaborative. Today’s effective and successful CIOs also put the customer first. Customer experience is the top of their agenda. CIOs that help deliver strong customer experience work for companies that outperform the industry. Customer centricity includes both internal and external customers.
Who has the most influence in business, IT or marketing? The CMO still has a lot of power and influence but the CIO is who makes things happen. Hinchliffe believes that eventually the chief digital officer will report to the CIO.
How important is the startup mentality for CIOs? The startups are bringing most of the innovative ideas in terms of how to make digital happen. A startup mentality that drives agility, scale, and rich engagement models are what CIOs need to mimic. CIOs with a startup mentality also become talent magnets. With digital infused in everything that we do, hiring good talent is no longer enough. CIOs need to create a work environment that attracts the very best digital savvy talent. Organizational survival will depend on how effectively CIOs can recruit in a hyper competitive market.
