PROFILE
diversity encompasses the more measurable
aspects such as gender and ethnicity but
also includes less visible aspects such as
neurodiversity and emotional intelligence.
I am also currently a mentor to five or six
early/mid-career people, doing my best to
help them avoid or at least learn from the
many mistakes that I have made.
expect this to be the case in the future
more than it has been in the past where the
typical route would be from a CFO or COO.
Certainly, many CIOs will have a firm grasp
on the realities of P&Ls and balance sheets
and will be accomplished at leading and
managing people, partnerships and so on. As
per my advice to aspiring CIOs, technology
is increasingly the part of the organisation
that can spot threats and opportunities in the
market driven by technology as well as the
most accurate estimates of how achievable
execution will be. CIOs are also typically
mature in terms of dealing with complexity
and uncertainty in the operating environment;
something that appears to be more common
in all business. So yes, why not. n
The most important career lesson
The most important career lesson I’ve
learned is probably to temper the arrogance
of certainty about anything in the future.
Any prediction of something that hasn’t
happened yet can only be an opinion and
therefore it is important to both recognise
that and to think about the quality and
provenance of that opinion and how wrong
it might be. Others would call this better at
managing risk, however, it is equally about
the realisation of opportunity. This helps
me understand when uncertainty about
the future is such that I should maintain
a few threads of activity akin to backing
more than one horse in a race. There are
other times where I may feel confidence
is so high that I should simply back a
single horse. Too many times, business and
investment cases and projections are made
to look like fact when of course they are not,
regardless of how well the management
accountants have done their jobs and
whether the numbers look compelling.
Advice for aspiring CIOs
It is important to understand the line of
sight to the senior team or board. Personally,
I will not work for an organisation that does
not have a technology role on the executive
board as I think this says something
about that organisation in terms of its
perception of technology. The opportunities
to exploit technology and/or the threat
from technology-driven disruption are now
relevant to all organisations and data, and
information is the lifeblood of all companies.
So, my advice is be prepared to be flexible
about how the organisation has chosen to
think about technology.
Should CIOs seek to become CEOs?
The answer to this is all about context in
terms of the skills and experience of the
individual and the nature of the company.
That said, I think it’s fair to say that I would
www.intelligentcio.com
MANY ‘TRADITIONAL’ ORGANISATIONS
ARE MOVING TO CLOUD-BASED
CAPABILITIES BUT IN DOING SO ARE
NOT RECOGNISING THE IMPORTANCE OF
CHANGING THE SECURITY APPROACH.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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