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Many chief information officers are in a bind, with company leaders demanding that CIOs have both world-class business sophistication and the technical chops one would expect.
This set of complex expectations creates a challenge for CIOs, because very few people bring together deep ability in both business operations and technology. It’s obvious that the training and career paths of operations and technology are dramatically different.
To address this challenge, I recommend that CIOs must embrace team-oriented, portfolio thinking in how they manage people, strategy, and technology. The portfolio approach recognizes that modern IT is a strategic business function that uses technology as an operational tool to support broader business goals. Frankly, any other view of IT is archaic and outdated, reducing the CIO’s value and relevance.
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Importantly, do not confuse this approach with the notion of two-speed IT or bi-model IT. The two-speed approach creates an IT caste system, in which anointed, higher-skill workers focus on innovation, while lower-skill personnel performs maintenance and other operational activities.
The team-oriented portfolio approach views IT as a wheel with spokes, each of which is necessary for the complete functioning of the whole.
My thinking on these points crystallized during episode #291 of the CXOTalk series of conversations with the world’s top innovators. On that show, I spoke with Arthur Hu, who is the global chief information officer at Lenovo, which has $45 billion in revenue and over 55,000 employees. The company is currently number 240 on the Fortune 500 list.
During the show, CIO Art Hu describes how he manages a large, globally distributed IT organization. His thinking very much aligns with the portfolio approach I described above. He also explains the limitations of two-speed IT and how he overcomes those issues.
One crucial point stands out from this entire conversation: Hu defines IT success in a single question, asking, “Did we strategically move the needle?” That sure seems right to me.
It’s a great conversation and worth your time to watch! Check out the video above and read the complete transcript.
You can also see edited excerpts from the transcript below.