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January 5, 1999

Your letters to my print column and this E-mail forum ask some serious questions about managing information technology in today's world. Since today's world is essentially absurd, my serious responses may sometimes sound a little whimsical, and my occasional whimsical ones, serious. In any case, if you want to participate, write to me at lovelace@home.com. I'll respond to those letters that I can. I reserve the right to edit for size and content. Just sign your E-mail the way you want it to appear online.

Dear Mr. Lovelace:
I am currently helping a shipbuilding company redesign some of its most senior reporting relationships. A critical question we are trying to tackle is to whom the CIO should report: the CEO, CFO, the chief operating officer, or someone else.

Do you have any insights on how I might frame this problem? What do most companies do in regard to their CIOs, and why do they do it?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Sincerely,
Suresh R.

Dear Suresh:
On the corporate hand-wringing meter, determining where the CIO position belongs hits a really high number. There has probably been more time spent on deciding where to put the CIO on the organizational chart than has been expended on the placement of all other positions, combined, in a company.

In the infancy of the computer age, the head of electronic data processing (that's what it was called back then) would frequently report to the controller. The reason was quite logical: EDP was used primarily as a tool to assist the accountants in doing their jobs. As the use of computers in other functions such as engineering or research grew, satellite computer departments developed, with their own budgets and standards. Around the early 1980's, the idea of merging all of these expensive groups became popular and the information systems department or information resource management department was born. Most frequently, this new entity reported to the CFO--a level up from the controller, but still firmly ensconced in the financial organization.

With the advent of the CIO concept, where the function should report once again became a topic of conversation and was more than a little emotional. Today, the trend is to have the position report to the CEO, the COO, or a senior VP of administration. The rationale is that the information systems of a company span the entire corporation and the person responsible needs to take a companywide viewpoint, not one that can be unduly influenced by any one function such as finance or marketing.

You asked for ideas for your consulting assignment on how to frame the question of where the CIO should report. I would suggest that there are two elements that are important for your shipbuilding company to consider. First, the question company officials need to ask themselves is in what activities do they see involvement by the CIO adding value. The second question they should consider is at what level does the CEO expect the CIO to interact. If the CIO is expected to bring together disparate systems throughout the company and is to be viewed as a resource to the executives who head the different functions of the corporation, then the only logical position from which to do so is from a spot on the organizational chart which reports directly to the CEO or the COO.

Dear Herb:
I read "The Secret CIO" in InformationWeek and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. As a young man working on a master's degree in computer IS, I often wonder what it will take to rise to the top of an organization. I desire to be a CIO in the future and I am wondering if there are any morsels of advice you would give a man like myself, with three years of experience and time on my side.

What qualities distinguish a systems analyst and open the door to the role of executive management? Is there anything that you would do differently if you could repeat your life? Looking back, can you see the best path to take? Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.

Thank you,
Brian

Dear Brian:
The path to executive management is not all that much different than you might expect. The people that are considered for the top jobs generally share the same traits. Throughout their careers, they have been the people who are noted for both competence and the ability to get along well with others. In that way, they build a cadre of supporters throughout the organization without ever having to go ask for either kind words or loyalty.

Take a look at your own organization. Identify the people who seem to fit the following five descriptions:
1) Get their job done quickly and competently without complaining.
2) Are pleasant and friendly to everyone, regardless of level in the organization.
3) Volunteer for the tough assignments if no one else is willing to shoulder the burden.
4) Never, never, bad-mouth a colleague although they will give honest and constructive feedback.
5) Are the people who the bosses turn to when they need something done right.

After you make that list, take a look at it again. You are looking at the names of the people who, more than likely, are the future executives in your company.

As for your second question, about what I would do differently if I had it to do all over again: I would make the list I suggested that you make and then I would have done my best to model myself after the best traits of the people on that list. Had I done so, I would have made a lot fewer mistakes along the way to my present position.

Dear Herb:
As a for-free speaker on the year 2000 circuit circus, I found your piece, "The Indomitable Moderator," so accurate that I winced. However, you appear to have been shorted on the goodies for speakers, or else you were mixed up with an extraordinarily frugal outfit.

I came away with a beach towel that screams Y2K, a denim shirt with a Y2K logo (handed down to my 6-year-old after the first washing), several T-shirts, and a complete set of blaring blue carry bags covered with a consulting firm's logo--which merely indicates to the practiced eye that I've done this more than once.

Simple mathematics reveals that the organizer's major problem is quite clear: What to do with all that money?

Steve K.

Dear Steve:
Indeed, I was dealing with a really cheap (more descriptive than your word, frugal) group. I spoke because I thought that the experience I could share would be useful to the audience (the old ego rearing up just when I thought I had it under control) and besides, the hotel was only a 10-minute walk from the office.

While I wasn't able to score the beach towel, the shirts, or the year 2000 luggage (question: will you be permitted to carry it on an airplane New Year's Eve 1999?) I did get a free lunch out of the deal. Unfortunately, the meal seemed as if it was prepared on the same budget as the one that was set aside for the speakers.

You raise a good question as to what they do with the money. I did a quick calculation while I was sitting on the podium listening to that big bore who was the moderator, and I figured that they were clearing better than $200,000 for the two-day seminar-and I may even have been overestimating the advertising and administrative expenses. Makes you sort of think that we are in the wrong business, doesn't it?

Dear Herb:
I have to prepare a four-page to six-page paper for my college class on a current information technology. The information has to be based on at least two articles from current publications (within 90 days). The topic should be related to management-planning issues rather than purely technical issues. For example, an appropriate article would be one that discussed an organization's successful migration from a centralized IT organization to a distributed organization that is more user-responsive while maintaining the critical elements of security, integrity, and reliability.

Do you know of any good article that can relate to the above? This paper is due in about four days and I'm greatly in need of assistance.

Thanks
Betty S.

Dear Betty:
In response to your question as to whether I know of any good recent articles related to management planning issues in information technology:

Yes, I do.

Unfortunately, I am not in the market for any more college credits, so you'll have to do the research on this one all by yourself. I think that if you search the Web and/or some back issues of publications such as InformationWeek, CIO Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, etc. you'll find more than enough material to write your paper, although next time you probably should consider not waiting until four days before it is due to get started.

Dear Herb:
I wanted to take this time to thank you for your article "The Indomitable Moderator." Your sense of humor and point of view struck me as interesting and knowledgeable. I especially enjoyed your allusion at the end of your article to the old proverb: Better to be quiet and thought a fool, than to speak and be proved one.

Staying on that line of thought, I have a bit of advice to ask of you. I am involved with sales and marketing in a software company and have been in this position for about three months. In a lot of my sales calls, I either interact with or leave messages for CIOs at many institutions.

My question is this: From your experience, how do you like to be approached when dealing with software vendors? My approach has been to tell a little bit about our product from a benefit to the enterprise standpoint and ask if there are any initiatives in place to look at the problems our software is designed to alleviate.

Because I am new and looking to be more receptive to the needs of CIOs and other IT professionals, please relay to me any advice, memorable experiences, and pointers that you have. Thank you for your time, Herb. I appreciate any help that you could give me.

Yours truly,
Reginald H.

Dear Reginald:
Although I know that it says in the sales book that your job is to call on the CIO and it is great to be able to tell your boss that you had an appointment with the person that actually signs the purchase orders, let me give you another point of view.

Most CIOs are so busy with internal problems including budgets and placating high-ranking executives that they have little time or inclination to become the screening committee for new software. You are far better off in finding someone in the organization who would be interested in your product and working up the food chain within the company, building support for what you can offer. I know you think it may take longer that way, but it's a lot more likely that you will achieve success.

Your next question is, "How do I find the right person in the organization who will be interested in my product?" Easy. Just call the CIO and ask. He or she will be grateful that you understand how organizations work and are not taking too much of his or her time. If you cannot get through to the CIO, ask the executive assistant who answers the phone. They know, frequently better than their bosses, to whom in the organization you should speak.

Herbert W. Lovelace is CIO at a multibillion-dollar international company. Herb practices his day job under an alias and has changed the names of colleagues to protect the guilty.

View past issues of "Ask The Secret CIO"