CIO Playbook: Become a Transformational Chief Information Officer

The evolving role of the CIO has undergone a drastic metamorphosis to keep up with changing organizational cultures and expectations in today’s business landscape of digital transformation. Becoming a transformational Chief Information Officer is the key to remaining relevant to business partners during this period of rapid organizational change.

But how can you make the shift from being a traditional CIO to becoming a transformational chief information officer? Industry analyst, Michael Krigsman, spoke with two outspoken industry leaders to gain advice on the transformational CIO role.

Tim Crawford is a well-known CIO strategic advisor; during the discussion, Michael Krigsman mentions that Tim seems to have originated the term “transformational CIO.” Isaac Sacolick is the author of Driving Digital, a book that explores themes that are important to transformational CIOs.

According to Tim, it’s important to understand the differences between the traditional and transformational CIO roles. For instance, the traditional CIO is very tech-centric, focused on a project with a start and a finish. The transformational CIO, on the other hand, tends to be business-centric, giving their attention to product and customer experience.

Another way in which the CIO role has seen a significant cultural change is the fact that a CIO can no longer limit themselves to working with the technology for the business. You also need to work with other departments, outside partners, and customers to help build the platform for how an organization is going to operate over the next five to ten years.

That means being able to understand the metrics related to other parts of the business–from supply chains to customer experience and everything in between–and understand how technology plays a role. As Tim puts it succinctly, you’re thinking business first, but technology is in your domain to be able to bring that to the conversation.

Today’s CIO also has to be in lockstep with their company’s CEO. In particular, Isaac says, it means putting yourself in the shoes of the CEO and thinking about the challenges across the entire organization. It also includes understanding the business objectives set for the board of directors and the C-suite and aligning yourself with the CEO in such a way that you know which technologies you can bring to the conversation to help advance those goals.

Tom and Isaac both acknowledge that transitioning from a traditional CIO to a transformational CIO role is a difficult leap. It means getting out of your comfort zone. An example Tim cites is switching industries. For example, if you’re in banking, take what you’ve learned in that industry and see how it can apply to, say, healthcare. Putting yourself in different situations and learning on the fly and being able to react to unfamiliar situations can translate into having the confidence to respond competently to rapidly changing conditions in any part of your company.

Tim says that we are currently at a crossroads in finding transformational CIOs. The older generation of CIOs have experience, and many are also still willing to learn new skills, but that takes time. Younger, aspiring CIO candidates are coming into the organization already well-versed in diverse disciplines, such as application development, Agile, and DevOps, and are already comfortable talking to businesspeople. What they lack is the perspective that comes with experience.

But for those who have made the leap, the hard and important work becomes exciting, as both Tim and Isaac believe that there has never been a better time to be a CIO leader.

Watch the video embedded above and read the complete transcript below. The transcript was lightly edited.