Why You Really Need a CIO (Even When You Think You Need a CTO)

There’s a sea change unfolding in how successful C-suite teams think about and deploy their senior technology officers.

For decades, companies have been content to consign data security, enterprise networking, cloud migration—to a chief technology officer (whether or not they carried that exact title). To fill this position, they searched for a competent technologist to support the organization’s business objectives by implementing and maintaining the best hardware and software.

In other words, the top technology officer’s job was to enable—not architect or lead—business functions. And for decades, that’s been a tenable approach. But not anymore. In many companies it has already become an outdated approach. Companies that think it’s enough to hire a top technology officer without a CIO will likely be at a competitive disadvantage.

Today, the highest-performing companies recognize the need for more than a technologist among their C-suite ranks. The best companies know they need a real chief information officer—a role they know is just as critical as any other C-level position.

Today’ CIOs are not only in peer partnership and fully aligned with the company’s top headquarters leadership, but also to divisional business leaders. In fact, many companies have divisional CIOs that report jointly to their business unit leader and an overall CIO.

What’s the difference between a top technology leader and a CIO? At core, the top technology leader’s responsibilities are more actionable, while a CIO’s tend to be more strategic. Top technology leaders know the marketplace and the products. They know how those products fit together, and how everything is supposed to work. CIOs may have been brilliant technologists decades ago, but today they often come from a more functional background, and are ready to fill a role that contributes directly to the strategic direction of the organization.

They also expect to have a dynamic relationship with the CEO (and a majority of CIOs now report to the CEO, rather than the CFO, according to Forbes). As Raj Sabhlok, a contributor to Forbes, accurately notes:

“Today’s successful CIO is a key executive within the organization. In fact, the CIO has become the CEO’s wingman and is often an important presence at board meetings. Not only are they well-versed in their organization’s business strategies; in many cases, they are driving them.”

This infographic from the Enterprise CIO Forum further explains the evolution of the role.

 

According to a survey by the Enterprise CIO Forum, a community of technologists and information managers, the No. 1 source—37 percent— of a CIO’s success is business results. Only 6 percent attribute their success to actual IT knowledge.

At Lantern, a major part of our job is to educate clients about the evolution of this role. Some companies think they need a hardcore technologist to make things happen, not a leader who has a bigger stake in the strategic direction of an organization. Many times, a company will come to us thinking they need a traditional top technology leader, when in reality, they want a CIO. For some C-level officers, it’s difficult to add another officer who can tell them how to do things better. But the best ones find a way to navigate this emotional obstacle.

In today’s data-deluged marketplace, armies of coders, programmers, and software developers give companies an indisputable technological edge. But that is not enough. A CIO can marshal these resources to advance a company’s business objectives—not just make sure the company’s data servers are up and running.

For companies to succeed, they need a CIO who is intimately involved with the direction of the business. And they need business savvy people between the CIO and the organization’s technologists. These people can speak the languages of technology and business, and translate business needs into technology results.

Let us help you ensure that your next CIO is contributing to your firm’s strategic direction and helping set the standard for today’s best CIO leaders.