InformationWeek

November 1, 1999

CIO Survival:
CIOs Must Adapt For Success

Stephanie Stahl onsider a day in the life of two CIOs. One prepares a 60-page, single-spaced document for the CEO that outlines a 10-year technical plan to create a high-speed networking backbone, super-fast servers to replace legacy systems, and a slew of the sharpest cutting-edge technologies on the market. The upshot: The company will be able to cut 100 jobs by automating responses to customer inquiries. He drops the plan in a nice manila envelope and sends it to the CEO's secretary through interoffice mail.

The other CIO has lunch with the CEO and several business managers. After some discussion about the Yankees' back-to-back World Series sweeps and how that upcoming John Malkovich movie looks pretty wacky, she discusses a way to turn the rest of the company's operations into an E-business, an innovative way to make sure customers needs are being met, and a way to ensure that the salespeople still get well-deserved commissions even though customers can now purchase products through electronic channels. This CIO has a project-management plan that includes bringing in new systems and developing new applications, but also ways to integrate those initiatives with existing mainframe-based customer databases. Who do you think is going to be the more successful CIO? The more successful company?

In this week's cover package (p. 42) senior editor Paul McDougall, senior writer Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, and consultant Ram Charan explore the characteristics and requirements necessary for surviving as a CIO in an era when business models are being turned upside down and missing a business opportunity is more frightening than wringing costs out of every business process. Sure, a deep understanding of technology is good for any CIO, but an even deeper understanding of business goals must be the top priority. And technology plans can't just impress the executive ranks; the CIO must also be clear to midlevel managers how their goals and business opportunities can be met. Case in point: As CIO at Aviall Inc., Margaret Bouline made plans for an online parts-ordering system for the company. But she also created a commission plan that would give sales reps an incentive to steer customers to the Web site where they could order such products. That's a bit outside the realm of the traditional CIO role, but these are not traditional times. As one of my colleagues likes to say, "that was so five minutes ago."

These days, a careful balance of leadership, business understanding, communication, problem-solving, and project-management skills can spell the difference between a rewarding career as a CIO or failure.

STEPHANIE STAHL
Editor
sstahl@cmp.com

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