Becoming the CIO – The Convergence of I.T. Strategy and Business Value Propositions

Since I’m new to the CIO space on the internet,  I am looking to find great CIO blogs to read. As I search for these blogs, I might as well share the blogs that I find with my readers in hopes that they will find them useful.

After scouring for hours in searches and links. Here are the top resources/blogs that I have found:

1. Geek Doctor – http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/ – This blog is written by John D. Halamka, MD, MS, is Chief Information Officer of the CareGroup Health System.

2. Candid CIO - http://candidcio.com/ – This is the Blog of Will Weider, CIO of Ministry Health Care and Affinity Health System. We have 14.5 hospitals and 400 employed physician across northern Wisconsin. This is the place where I share what I have learned through my mistakes and other crazy things in the life of a healthcare CIO

3. Harold’s Blog from University of Calgary – http://www.ucalgary.ca/blogs/harold – Harold Esche blogs about the accomplishments, challenges and his vision as chief information officer of UCIT.

4. CIO blog – http://www.cioblog.co.uk/ - Thoughts and Comments on the Management of Technology from a UK CIO (Chief Information Officer)

5. The accidental successful CIO – http://www.theaccidentalsuccessfulcio.com/ – In this blog,  Dr. Anderson offers his insights on how to get business and the IT groups to work together for the betterment of the firm.

6. The Nutty CIO – http://www.thenuttycio.com/blog/ – The nutty CIO blog is a tongue in cheek look at everything ICT and Technology related, with hopefully a smattering of good old common sense and possibly an idea or two of how to tackle the same old problems, smarter not necessarily harder.

7. CIO at Harvey Mudd -http://cioatharveymudd.blogspot.com/ – Joseph Vaughan is CIO and Vice President for Computing and Information Services at Harvey Mudd College

8. The Effective CIO - http://effectivecio.com/ – I want to talk about being a CIO, about solving problems, about helping people, about making a difference.  I also like to share lots of things that I think are worth noting, even if they don’t directly pertain to being a CIO or using computers.

9. Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms – http://mikeschaffner.typepad.com/michael_schaffner/ – Mike Schaffner on Managing Information Technology and Your IT Career

10. CIO Guy -  http://www.cioguy.com/ – General thoughts and postings about issues that I encounter in my role as a CIO. Topics may include healthcare administration, physician relationships, technology, and improving community health.

The successful Chief Information Officer(CIO) fulfills multiple hats and provides an array of value to business stakeholders that rely on him/her to align with the business strategy.

Top key things to be proficient in to become a successful CIO:

1. Technical knowledge. Understanding the tools, processes, applications, technologies that the enterprise requires to operationally obtain its goals is critical. To make technical decisions and also lead technical people in their decision making you need to have a clear view of the technology landscape that lies ahead.

2. Business acumen. One of the CIOs core focus’ is to align the long term I.T. strategy with business strategy and growth. That means you need to understand key business drivers, value propositions and core competencies of the business. You need to understand how you can use I.T. solutions to develop a competitive advantage for your company to execute on their strategy. You need to talk, walk and breathe at the same time. Communicating I.T. strategies and its benefits to business stakeholders is imperative to establish trust, buy-in  and likeability in your profession.

3. People leadership. Having technical skills and understanding the business will only get you so far. You need people to carry out the vision and strategy. Leading people is a soft  skill that few people can execute perfectly. It’s an ongoing mandate to develop relationships with people and have them want to follow you in realizing a vision.

4. Professional Network. Although not necessary, a good CIO as with any senior executive should have a professional network of CIOs/ senior I.T. executives that he/she can leverage. Things that can be learned from each other are best practices, challenges and pitfalls, and  a common strategy to succeed for your organization. It’s also noteworthy to add that as much information, thought leadership, guidance you receive, you should give back.

5. Passion for learning - In the ever evolving world of technology, things change at a rapid pace. As an executive you need to keep to update with current trends (not only in technology). You will notice that new ideas and concepts usually come from other disciplines and can also be applied to your organization.

6. Focus – There are many strategies/implementations/vendors that can be chosen to implement a certain architecture, strategy or system change. Maintaining a core focus of the long-term architecture roadmap is critical to reducing cost and successfully communicating technology benefits to key stakeholders. Standardization of technologies is one example of aligning  the company and obtaining focus.

7. Delivery – The last thing and one of the most important things is that you have to deliver. You have to deliver on scope, timelines, budgets, quality and business benefits. A constant track record of delivery will enable you to get business stakeholders be confident that the I.T. shop is providing a tangible benefit to their business.

Conclusion

In an age where I.T. departments are asked to deliver more with less, the top skills outlined above are necessary for senior I.T. executives and CIOs to possess to successfully lead their I.T. strategies to align with business objectives.

The aim of this blog is to chronicle my learnings and analysis of the Chief Information Officer(CIO) profession in my quest to become a CIO in the future. I am severely interested in this profession as it touches upon the challenges and opportunities that technology companies face in this ever changing and competitive environment. Information Technology and the tools that an I.T. organization uses to create business value play a vital role to the success of an organization and its objective to create shareholder value. I hope you, as a reader, will accompany me as I evolve into a better I.T. professional and inevitably become a CIO.