Drive Your Business
Advice for the New CIOLeveraging IT to drive business
2 ©2016 WGroup. ThinkWGroup.com
ForewordThe new CIO works in a disrupted, digital world and must leverage new, rapidly
changing ways of delivering IT services to drive business goals. These services have
to be focused on driving the business strategies, while optimizing delivery quality
and cost. The disruption factor can be immense if “going digital” will not accelerate
business growth, enhance a competitive market position, or create differentiation. By
leveraging resources, relationships, and innovative technology, new CIOs can overcome
the challenges of the office and form the foundation for a successful tenure.
Dual challenges
New executive leader failure rate consistently ranges from 40 to 50%. The dual challenges
for new CIOs are justifying your new role and justifying the business value of IT. Running
IT is a business, and IT should be run as a business. New CIO’s have to embrace this
concept and understand the skills and requirements needed to be successful.
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What’s covered in this briefing?This guide was designed to help current and future CIOs understand their place
in the business world today and learn new strategies to handle issues related to
security, correcting business and IT alignment issues, governance, XaaS, and
strategic initiatives. It will help new CIOs achieve success in their first 90 days and
lead IT transformation to help build the foundation of a winning organization.
First 90 days
We’ll give a step-by-step breakdown
of what new CIOs need to know for
their first 90 days and beyond.
Early wins
Securing early wins is critical to building
relationships and securing your role in the
organization. We’ll offer some suggestions
for key targets in the first days on the job.
Challenges
The first months of a CIO’s tenure are
often the most challenging. We’ll cover
some of the most common issues and
strategies for dealing with them.
CIO-to-CIO advice
Throughout the briefing, we’ll feature advice
from leading CIOs about how they overcame
challenges and helped meet business needs.
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CIO-to-CIO advice: Timeline for a new CIOThe first 90 days on the job for a new CIO set the precedent for your tenure. You
must gain a clear understanding of the state of the company and IT, meet and
build relationships with the team, and develop strategies to leverage resources
to drive business and deliver more efficient and secure IT service.
This timeline will provide you with an overview of best practices for this critical early stage.
Days 1 – 45The first days on any high level executive job
will inevitably be filled with countless meetings,
strategic consultations, and other measures to
help orient the new executive. By taking advantage
of this early period, and using it to build stronger
relationships with the team and craft your
directive for the future of IT in the company, you
can help ensure the success of your tenure.
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Communicate1
Key QuestionsWhat are the top security concerns
in the IT organization?
What are employee thoughts about company policies, such as BYOD?
What are the current structures of governance in IT? Are they thought to be effective?
Whose needs do they not address? What are different players’ optimal spending priorities?
• Communicate early and often.
• Start by talking with peers and IT staff to understand the landscape and begin building
connections.
• Meet and hash out early priorities with the board, CEO, COO, CFO, and other business leaders.
• Ask questions. Talk to employees, colleagues, and business leaders to learn how the business is
functioning, what needs to be done, and where the business is headed.
• Listen. The first month should be primarily focused on learning about the company and its people.
• Share your goals and communicate who you are.
• Communicate priorities in a 30-day outreach plan.
What has been outsourced to XaaS? What would be further outsourced?
What is the state of office relationships? Who is well liked? Who is respected?
Who are the underperformers?
Where is IT misaligned with overarching business goals?
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Evaluate talent2
Build relationships3
• Find out who is underperforming.
• Find out who has high potential and why.
• Create a strategy to nurture talent and replace underperforming individuals.
• Identify immediate concerns and challenges for business partners.
• Find quick fixes that can help form the foundation for mutually beneficial relationships.
• Talk to business leaders to gain a better understanding of the business’s strategic direction.
• Determine which department carries the most weight in the organization. This will help you
understand the company’s culture and where to focus your efforts.
• Identify those who will help you advance your priorities (and those who will get in your way).
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Assess and make goals4
• Conduct a full IT assessment and use it to develop a comprehensive strategy.
• Evaluate security in IT. What are the weak points?
• How is the organization using cloud technology?
• Identify areas where XaaS could provide benefits.
• Is IT aligned with business strategies?
• Establish clear KPIs for yourself and your team aligned with your priorities.
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Open communication is key at every stage.
Days 1 – 45After you are oriented and have a solid footing as CIO,
it’s time to start expanding on the foundation you have
laid and implement plans of a greater scope.
Communicate1
Assess2
• Keep channels of communication open.
• Continually reiterate your goals and strategies to business
leaders and employees
• Look for outside perspectives to gain greater insight into the
company’s state and future.
• Prioritize critical or at-risk areas for assessment.
• Rapidly engage sourcing to meet gaps.
• Set up VMO to help manage vendors and fill out the needs of the
organization.
• Conduct high-level assessments across all areas. Which areas
are assessed will depend on organization type, health, and
perceived maturity level.
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Act on talent evaluations3
• Identify talent acquisitions that need to be made and positions that need to be eliminated.
• Get the support of employees and leaders first.
• Take steps to begin restructuring the organization.
• Act quickly, respectfully, and decisively while restructuring.
• Promote the changes as a positive for the company and recognize the contributions of
effective employees.
• Continue to fix simple problems quickly and maintain your role as an effective leader.
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After day 90As you continue the work started in the first 90 days, it is critical that you keep paying
attention to how the business is changing and what impact your actions are having. Don’t
be afraid to pivot or readjust your plans to better fit the business needs of the organization.
Communicate1
Assess2
It’s important to continually assess your progress – to keep your actions in line with your initiatives.
• Maintain and nurture the relationships you have built.
• Continue to ask questions and learn about new opportunities.
• Look for problems or concerns that need to be addressed.
• Keep assessing your progress toward goals and the
effectiveness of your initiatives.
• Socialize your finding and solicit support from business
partners.
• Evaluate supplier performance and identify those that
are providing your organization the greatest value.
• Evaluate how your plan fits in with your risk-mitigation
strategies and its impact against the existing workload.
• Don’t be afraid to reevaluate goals and plans.
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Develop long-term goals3• Develop a remediation strategy and investment plan.
• Formulate a strategic link between internal technology and business strategy.
• Facilitate key business drivers of success.
• Compare all activities to predefined metrics to judge success and reevaluate as necessary.
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Start with short-term improvements that will have a positive, measurable impact on the business.
In your first months as CIO, it is critical to rack up early wins to solidify the respect of
your team and build relationships with colleagues. Don’t start by reengineering all back-
end systems and completely restructuring the workplace. Save more substantial projects
for when you have built relationships and formed a solid foundation. In the early days of
your tenure, you should be focused on the simple solutions that will provide real, quickly
attainable value for the company. These victories will help cement your place in the
organization and give you the foundation you need to implement long-term plans.
CIO-to-CIO advice: Early wins
Make a plan of attack• Start by making a list of short-term service improvements that will have a measurable
impact on the business.
• Identify critical IT policies and develop guidance for the business in key areas, including
data security, cloud, and vendor management.
• Look for low-hanging fruit first. Easy victories will build relationships quickly.
• Communicate with employees and business leaders to identify their problems.
• There was usually a reason why your predecessor was replaced. Look for the problems
they left behind.
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Get help
Build relationships
• Find a VP of infrastructure and operations. They can help you address day-to-day issues
and deal with noise distracting you from your strategic role.
• Finding effective talent can solve critical tactical problems, make operations run more
smoothly, and, above all, send the message that you are serious about delivering on the
promise of IT.
• Find executives in IT and other departments who can straddle the border between IT and other
business areas. They will be your ambassadors.
• Contacts in other departments can work with IT to deliver on service demand and provide early
wins for the CIO.
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As a new CIO, it is critical that you understand the
culture of the IT organization and how to effectively
influence change. In order to overcome difficulties
and carry out long-term strategies, you must establish
your own credibility and provide IT leadership that
impacts real, positive change in the organization.
CIO-to-CIO advice: Overcoming challenges
Observe
Assess
• The best leaders don’t change the entire organization
before they truly understand it.
• Be patient. Take time to observe first hand how the business operates.
• Gain a point of reference by which to discuss problems and strategies in a relevant way
and implement more effective solutions.
• Outdated and misaligned IT strategies can cause inefficiency and unhappiness in the
organization.
• Look for deficiencies in security, vendor management, and business alignment.
• Regularly assess the progress and success of projects to revise strategies and set a
better course for the organization.
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Improve service performance
Balance demands
Fill talent deficiencies
• Delivering secure, effective services is at the core of IT’s mission, but many CIOs face
underperforming infrastructure and suppliers.
• Review the service -delivery model and assess supplier constraints.
• Initiate a routine process of developing service-improvement plans tied to personal
objectives and SLAs.
• Maintaining the day-to-day operations of the business while meeting increasing demands
for new applications and services can be difficult.
• Use what you have learned from talking to people within the company to better
understand the business’s needs.
• Create an executive governance committee composed of IT and business leadership to
mutually prioritize these demands and ensure that efforts are being best allocated to meet
the needs created by shifts in business and peak periods.
• In your first months as CIO, you will find areas where your organization lacks the
necessary skills or leadership to maximize productivity, creativity, and efficiency.
• Establish key consultancy partnerships for guidance and to help fill temporary gaps in the
resource plan while seeking long-term talent.
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CIO-to-CIO advice: Five key tips for the new CIO
Listen1
Understand2
• Spend your first 45 days listening, paying close attention to the
organization’s state of operations.
• Truly strive to understand what the IT organization is saying and
what the business is saying.
• It is imperative to gain a firm grasp of the cultural dynamic at the
firm.
• What are the nuances?
• Where are the power bases?
• How are decisions being made, formally and informally?
• Try to understand issues from all sides.
• Gain insight into your employees’, colleagues’, and the executive suite’s perceptions of
what is and is not working.
• Are there easy things that can be fixed quickly that will make a significant difference?
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Learn3
Consider risk4
Make sure you are building your strategy in a way that is aligned with where the business is headed.
• Communicate with the executive group and find out how they want to see IT function from
a business standpoint.
• Determine if the business wants to be a real partner with IT. This allows you to shape the
direction of your organization and processes moving forward.
• Build your strategy in a way that is aligned with where the business is headed by
adhering to that message and direction.
• In a strategic partnership, the cost profile, talent profile, and operating models
are different. Organize in a way to limit conflict and maximize empowerment and
accountability.
• What risks are the technology organization creating?
• Understand these risks and how to mitigate or eliminate them.
• What investment options are open to you?
• How are these perceived and balanced with other competing aspects?
• Consider how risk is affecting decisions and potential consequences. Use this insight to
make more informed decisions.
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Changing structure and talent 5
• Don’t change the organization just because you are new.
• Look for ways to enhance functional, operational, and strategic engagement models.
• Organization structure should create clear lines of accountability for both technology and
business engagement.
• There should be constant transparency and process efficiency to meet operational
requirements, create empowered teams, and build collaborative partnerships.
• Fostering a positive technology culture enhances the culture of the broader business and
maximizes the strengths of the individual and teams.
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Being a great CIO is about listening, forming business connections,
and finding great talent. New CIOs must take on security concerns,
governance issues, the adoption of XaaS, and aligning business and IT
interests in order to drive business goals and achieve success.
Conclusion
Specific Challenges
Fixing inherited systems and services that are problematic for the business.
Updating outdated systems so that they can provide more complete
capabilities for the business.
Handling important projects that have fallen behind schedule
or have run over budget.
Restructuring the team to better meet your goals and fixing problems
with employees who have a history of performance issues.
The ability to handle these issues while
adhering to solid business strategies is
what separates a successful CIO from
one of the many who are replaced in their
first year. By taking the time to understand
these challenges and learn the strategies
that make a CIO successful, you can
help ensure that your efforts will drive
growth in the business and secure your
position as a vital part of the company.
Drive Your Business
Founded in 2004, WGroup is a technology management consulting firm that provides Strategy,
Management and Execution Services to optimize business performance, minimize cost and create
value. Our consultants have years of experience both as industry executives and trusted advisors
to help clients think through complicated and pressing challenges to drive their business forward.
Visit us at www.thinkwgroup.com or give us a call at (610) 854-2700 to learn how we can help you.
150 N Radnor Chester Road Radnor, PA 19087
610-854-2700
ThinkWGroup.com
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