Enterprise IT has a tough time grappling with technology advances, changes in the business environment, shifting customer preferences, volatile security scenario, and increasing government oversight. Successful IT leadership converts crisis into opportunities though. This tech blog for IT professionals explains seven ways CIOs and IT leaders can position IT for success.

1. Collaborate with Business Stakeholders for IT-Business Alignment

IT is today much more than a team of troubleshooters. Successful IT leaders strive to align IT functions to core business functions. Strategy, and not technology is the prime driver of such digital transformation. In nine out of ten digitally mature enterprises, the digital strategy devolves from the enterprise strategy. 

Successful IT leaders:

• Collaborate with the C-suite and other business leaders, to develop a consensus on the business value of IT interventions. Through such collaboration, CIOs position IT as a business partner, rather than as an order-taker.
• Coordinate with the CEO and functional heads to set roadmaps for strategy implementation. High performing CIOs innovate new business models, speed up time-to-market, and create efficiencies.
• Collate 360-degree feedback, and make it the basis for the IT action plan.
• Focus on the customer. Effective CIOs understand customers’ needs, and channel digital transformation to help them. Expecting the customer to change or perform some extra steps to promote internal efficiency is a foolhardy move. A good case in point is Grab, South East Asia’s leading taxi aggregator service. The company modelled its operations on a mobile-first platform, taking cognizance of the mobile-first and mobile-only option for most of its customers. The company also diversified into various streams, including financial inclusion to those in rural areas not having access to banking services.
• Develop the infrastructure for open communication unhindered by hierarchy or location. High performing CIOs lead by example, to enable transparency and seamless flow of information across teams.

2. Encourage Calculated Risk-Taking

Today’s uncertain business environment makes it difficult to understand every risk. Successful IT leaders train the enterprise to cope with uncertainty instead. They:

• Plan for risk and train for uncertainty. Progressive IT leaders quantify the risk, undertake SWOT analysis, and encourage calculated risk-taking. Risk-taking often manifests as promoting innovation.
• Adopt a modular approach to implementing systems, for flexibility and rapid changes. Agile and DevOps enable small, focused iterations, speeding up time-to-market, and stopping failures fast.
• Create flexible roadmaps. Effective CIOs tackle issues proactively, without waiting for them to snowball into a disruption or crisis. Fire-fighting increases risk, stifles innovation, and causes inefficiencies.

3. Control the Disruption

IT leaders grapple with disruptive technologies. New technology often causes complex chain reactions that have implications beyond the apparent. IT leaders have to make their enterprise “future-ready” without creating collateral damage. Smart CIOs:

• Adopt a methodological approach to identify transformative technologies that benefit the enterprise, and prioritise based on opportunity cost and cost-benefit analysis.
• Digitise workflows to automate and integrate work processes. Forward-looking enterprises upgrade digital platforms to simplify processes, drive innovation, and unlock value.
• Embrace ITaaS and other cloud models to improve efficiencies and enhance competitiveness.
• Develop a consensus with the rank-and-file on implementing technology. Effective leaders understand the C-suite nod is only a legal approval. Digital transformation succeeds only with the support of end-users.
• Foster a company-wide digital culture to create better customer experiences.

4. Take a Proactive Approach to Network Security

Cyber-attacks take down even the biggest and most well-run enterprises. The onus is on IT leadership to protect enterprise data and systems from such a threat.

Smart IT leaders:

• Do not get bogged down in a fire-fighting mode. They take cognizance of the latest threat situations and take proactive countermeasures.
• Conduct double-checks on the basic security measures. Many enterprises take basic security protocols for granted. Yet many enterprises have outdated antivirus suites and unsecured servers. Successful CIOs keep software and policies up-to-date.
• Invest in encryption, network monitoring and other advanced security measures. Fool-proof security requires full visibility into the network, to identify threats in real-time and fix responsibility. Traditional perimeter protection approaches no longer work in today’s BYOD and remote work era.
• Ensure full compliance with GDPR, CCPA and other regulatory mandates. CIOs who create checklists or safeguards for regulatory compliance save their enterprises from costly fines, damage, and loss of reputation.
• Spread awareness about security among the rank-and-file, and train them on safe browsing and work practices. Cybersecurity depends on a vigilant cybersecurity culture.

5. Transform the Workforce

Flexwork, telecommuting, independent contractors, and other developments change the dynamics of the workplace. Successful IT leaders:

• Have a proactive action plan to recruit IT engineers and hard-to-get data scientists.
• Collaborate with HR on talent strategies and skill development. Competitive advantage rests on reskilling talent in 5G, AI, cloud, and other in-demand technology.
• Delegate and empower employees. Today’s knowledge workers work best with a servant-leadership strategy. Here, the enterprise recruits knowledge workers with the right fit and shared values, and facilitates them to excel in their work.

6. Step into the Digital Leadership Void

Go-getting CIOs step into the digital leadership void that exists in most enterprises. The most successful CIOs are not technocrats. They are rather thought leaders, innovators, culture breakers, and collaborators

Successful CIOs:

• Run the IT department like a business, managing investments and prioritising tasks. They back up their strong technical expertise with knowledge of functional areas such as finance and legal.
• Manage the ambiguous layer between strategy and systems. Functional leaders focused on business verticals often remain oblivious to cross-enterprise opportunities that CIOs identify.
• Develop storytelling prowess. Storytelling conveys abstract concepts to stakeholders. CIOs can, for instance, write a blog on the benefits of implementing a new field management suite. They get the message across through simple visuals such as pie charts, infographics, or even cartoons.

Two out of every three CIOs regard business and leadership skills as more important than tech skills.

7. Become Obsessed with Metrics

Today’s business runs by numbers. The C-suite loosens its purse strings only when convinced of a positive ROI. Today, metrics even quantify values such as customer sentiments, goodwill. As the stakes of data become higher, enterprises centralise their data initiatives. They give IT responsibility for data storage and analytics.

Successful IT leaders:

• Craft a solid Big Data strategy, to identify relevant data, and store it without silos.
• Invest in robust data analytics solutions, to deliver real-time business insights.
• Develop connectors and APIs to ensure comprehensive data collection, without silos.
• Set up and manage CRM, field management suite, and other functional systems.
• Partner with the COO and other top management to define KPIs that make explicit the value to the digital activity.
• Emulate best practices from industry leaders. Pfieffer’s IT team, for instance, focuses on First Time Right metrics to optimise service deliveries. They use the Net Promoter Score to quantify the extent to which the company meets customer needs.

IT leaders succeed by becoming change agents. Successful CIOs understand what customers want. They partner with operational managers and work backwards to deliver such needs.