It's more than an understatement to say the role of technology leaders has changed over the past few years.
The widespread adoption of cloud computing and process automation has reduced the demands for IT departments to keep the lights on. Large-scale capital expenditures on infrastructure are being replaced by increased operating expenses on services. Meanwhile, the pressure to take an active leadership role in the business's digital transformation is greater than ever.
What will the CIO job look like in five years? Technology leaders will need to be equally adept at five new roles.
Role No. 1: Chief innovation officer
In the age of digital transformation, tech leaders really have just two options: become the agent of that transformation or be reduced to a caretaker role. That's why the 'i' in CIO really needs to stand for 'innovation,' says Renee Lahti, CIO for Hitachi Vantara, a data storage systems provider.
Today's CIOs are a lot like chief financial officers used to be 30 or 40 years ago, says Angela Yochem, chief digital and technology officer at Novant Health, a large healthcare provider based in the Southeast.
But many CIOs who rose through the ranks due to their technical acumen are going to have a hard time making the transition, says Ken Piddington, CIO of petrochemical company SGR Energy.
Role No. 2: Chief inclusion officer
A key agenda item for future CIOs will be to focus more time and effort on diversifying their workforce. That's true today, and it will be even more true tomorrow. Having a diverse staff enhances the decision-making process and leads to better outcomes, says Rao.
So far, the tech industry's record for diversity in hiring is pretty abysmal. According to the National Center for Women & Information Technology, only one in four technology-related jobs is held by a woman, and just 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies have female CIOs. The picture looks even worse when measuring race and ethnicity. A March 2017 Business Insider analysis of the diversity reports from top technology companies found that 80 to 95 percent of tech personnel are white or Asian.
However, the situation is slowly improving. According to 2019 report by Redthread Research and Mercer, the use of diversity and inclusion (D&I) technology — recruiting, development, and retention tools that help identify candidates from under-represented populations — is on the rise.
There are also bottom line arguments for diversity a CFO or CEO can get behind. During a 2017 keynote, CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux noted that a one percent increase in diversity hiring correlates to a 3 percent annual increase in revenue — which could generate a boost of some $400 billion industry wide.
But the primary reason is that a diverse workforce will enable CIOs to do their jobs better, says Lahti.
Role No. 3: Chief (artificial) intelligence officer
Machine learning and artificial intelligence may be buzzwords the C-suite loves to throw around, but most still expect IT to make the AI magic happen.
According to a May 2019 survey by CompTIA, 60 percent of large organizations expect their existing IT staff to provide resources for the company's AI projects, while just under half also expect to add AI-savvy hires. Less than 10 percent say their AI projects will be handled primarily by business teams.
The main thing future CIOs will need to know is to understand the art of the possible, says Piddington.
When it comes to things like ML and AI, CIOs shouldn't be the smartest people in the room, agrees Lahti. But they'll need to know enough to take advantage of AIOps and DataOps, have a deep understanding of issues surrounding algorithmic bias and ethics, and make strategic decisions based on data.
Role No. 4: Chief instructional officer
The need for technologists to develop better people skills been a longstanding cliché. But in five years excellent interpersonal skills will be table stakes — not just for networking with peers in the C-suite, but also for building stronger relationships with their staff.
And as tech leaders' portfolios grow, and they take on higher-level responsibilities, they'll need to lean heavily on staff. That also means taking a more active role in helping them develop new skills.
But what your staff gains in knowledge it could lose in productivity, he warns. You don't want your people spending so much time training there's not enough left to get their work done; but if you don't train them well enough, they won't be able to do their jobs effectively. While tech leaders need to find the right balance, they should probably put a heavier emphasis on skills, he adds.
Role No. 5: Chief inspiration officer
Today's CIOs need to identify the technologies that will drive their organizations forward and explain to the CFO and CEO why they're necessary. Tomorrow's tech leaders will need to articulate a vision for the entire company that motivates and inspires.
The ability to inspire is directly related to the ability to tell stories, says Lahti. It will increasingly be up to the CIO to connect the dots between the technology and what is possible to achieve with it.
For example, she adds, researchers in Australia are using Hitachi VSP storage arrays to store petabytes of brain scan data, which they're analyzing as part of an effort to reverse the effects of Alzheimer's.
No comments:
Post a Comment