Comments on: Does the CEO Care About IT? http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it Just another WordPress site Thu, 06 Nov 2014 02:53:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.41 By: Are IT Leaders Also Social Media Leaders? — CIO Dashboard http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-626 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:37:07 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-626 […] […]

]]> By: ¿El CEO se preocupa por IT? por Chris Curran « Gestión de Valor Inversiones IT http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-615 Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:04:30 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-615 […] ¿El CEO se preocupa por IT? […]

]]> By: Dr. Kervokian http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-614 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:05:12 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-614 I wish to see the day that we need license to practice IT. Those who are found to be malpractice should be stripped of their capability to work in this field. Without an industry wide governance of IT practitioners, there will be too many situations of pretenders and business people who makes technical decisions on behalf of IT.

What’s worst, these so called IT practitioners would just hold their tongue and cheekily agree that it is the best decision ever made.

The business can find a 2nd or 3rd opinion from an IT proposal; but we do not argue with our doctors and haggle on price about how much liver should be removed when its found to be cancerous…

Until such time, IT is executed and treated like a flee market.

]]> By: Dr. Kervokian http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-625 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:05:00 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-625 I wish to see the day that we need license to practice IT. Those who are found to be malpractice should be stripped of their capability to work in this field. Without an industry wide governance of IT practitioners, there will be too many situations of pretenders and business people who makes technical decisions on behalf of IT.

What’s worst, these so called IT practitioners would just hold their tongue and cheekily agree that it is the best decision ever made.

The business can find a 2nd or 3rd opinion from an IT proposal; but we do not argue with our doctors and haggle on price about how much liver should be removed when its found to be cancerous…

Until such time, IT is executed and treated like a flee market.

]]> By: john sviokla http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-613 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:28:23 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-613 Hi Chris,

For me the big thing to discern is the CIO only a “staff” person, that is they control indirect costs and create value as part of the non-line organization, or are they seen as Bill above from McGraw-Hill obviously was which is to be a major line part of the organization and delivery capability.

I bet this drives a LOT of the support versus non-support. Also, when we see a CIO in a business where IT is core, like in a bank, and they don’t get respect, that tell you a lot!

john

]]> By: john sviokla http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-624 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:28:00 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-624 Hi Chris,

For me the big thing to discern is the CIO only a “staff” person, that is they control indirect costs and create value as part of the non-line organization, or are they seen as Bill above from McGraw-Hill obviously was which is to be a major line part of the organization and delivery capability.

I bet this drives a LOT of the support versus non-support. Also, when we see a CIO in a business where IT is core, like in a bank, and they don’t get respect, that tell you a lot!

john

]]> By: lars http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-612 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:01:01 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-612 Hi Chris,
Yes – indeed – this is an interesting discussion and based upon some project experience I would like again to use the old concept of separating IT in two task areas:

1. Standard IT Services

Except from the recognition that this costs money and is the backbone of an efficiently operating enterprise I do not think that the CEO should care! This is pure CIO territory. I have seen CEOs jumping on topics like desktop configurations or SAP Gui designs. This love for IT is not productive and brings the CIO in awkward situations. IT should align with business in this area, set targets and agree on Service Levels and the like. The service provisioning is managed properly by the CIO and his team subsequently and of course the CEO can measure the performance and outcome.
The CIO will hardly receive any merits here: It is expected to work well and as we all know in case of outages and downtimes the shouting will be loud.

2. IT as a core enabler

Much more challenging is to enable technology to drive business excellence! And here the CEO and CIO need to closely team up! A CEO who fails to recognize the importance of IT in transforming his business does no good (and honestly I have not seen any in recent years). CEO and CIO need to align and jointly decide who is performing which role in a project or in ongoing activities (e.g. technology and industry adaptation screening) – it’s a team effort whereas the CIO contributes his technology expertise (and creative thinking how this can be applied in business) and the CEO often leads the mobilization of the organization! But are CIOs always up to this task?

]]> By: lars http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-623 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:01:00 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-623 Hi Chris,
Yes – indeed – this is an interesting discussion and based upon some project experience I would like again to use the old concept of separating IT in two task areas:

1. Standard IT Services

Except from the recognition that this costs money and is the backbone of an efficiently operating enterprise I do not think that the CEO should care! This is pure CIO territory. I have seen CEOs jumping on topics like desktop configurations or SAP Gui designs. This love for IT is not productive and brings the CIO in awkward situations. IT should align with business in this area, set targets and agree on Service Levels and the like. The service provisioning is managed properly by the CIO and his team subsequently and of course the CEO can measure the performance and outcome.
The CIO will hardly receive any merits here: It is expected to work well and as we all know in case of outages and downtimes the shouting will be loud.

2. IT as a core enabler

Much more challenging is to enable technology to drive business excellence! And here the CEO and CIO need to closely team up! A CEO who fails to recognize the importance of IT in transforming his business does no good (and honestly I have not seen any in recent years). CEO and CIO need to align and jointly decide who is performing which role in a project or in ongoing activities (e.g. technology and industry adaptation screening) – it’s a team effort whereas the CIO contributes his technology expertise (and creative thinking how this can be applied in business) and the CEO often leads the mobilization of the organization! But are CIOs always up to this task?

]]> By: Hiro Ochi http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-611 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:15:51 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-611 The issue has been in the business community for over 40 years. Some of you have already pointed out different ways, but the key is what responsibility CEO has in IT area. Second question is the authority, responsibility and accoutability of CIO. To whom does CIO report? CFO, CEO, president or chaiman? Does CIO have a staff function or a line function in the organization? Therefore, I always get back to the basic of the system question. Why CEO and CIO exist in the organization? What CEO’s visions and goals are; What CIO goals are and what CIO must perform to achieve them as a staff organization or as a line organization. Once you clarify these things, it should be apparent to know how much CEO should care about IT for himself and for the organization as a whole. In the traditional sense, CEO should care about IT as a useful, effective tools to manage business well. However, the survey indicated that there is still a long way to achieve what IT should be doing properly from both CEO and CIO perspectives as we are still discussing the same topics for over 40 years.

]]> By: Hiro Ochi http://rocketpanther.com/ciostage/it-strategy/does-ceo-care-about-it#comment-622 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:15:00 +0000 http://www.ciodashboard.com/?p=1779#comment-622 The issue has been in the business community for over 40 years. Some of you have already pointed out different ways, but the key is what responsibility CEO has in IT area. Second question is the authority, responsibility and accoutability of CIO. To whom does CIO report? CFO, CEO, president or chaiman? Does CIO have a staff function or a line function in the organization? Therefore, I always get back to the basic of the system question. Why CEO and CIO exist in the organization? What CEO’s visions and goals are; What CIO goals are and what CIO must perform to achieve them as a staff organization or as a line organization. Once you clarify these things, it should be apparent to know how much CEO should care about IT for himself and for the organization as a whole. In the traditional sense, CEO should care about IT as a useful, effective tools to manage business well. However, the survey indicated that there is still a long way to achieve what IT should be doing properly from both CEO and CIO perspectives as we are still discussing the same topics for over 40 years.

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