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No, No, No
While studying the company, it also makes sense to learn about the industry. McCracken says that a new CIO should spend time early on learning about his company's competitive position, why the company is in that position, what it sells and how it makes more money than it pays out. The CIO can gather this information from company officers, but he should also talk to outsiders and read relevant business publications.
"If you rely solely on internal leadership to provide you with that understanding, you're going to get a slant that doesn't give you enough view to create a vision that's going to make you more competitive," McCracken says.
As for the company itself, CIOs should look to other senior managers. But it's not always clear from the organizational chart who these people are. In many midmarket companies, for instance, title inflation abounds. There may be a ton of vice presidents, but only a few with influence over how business gets done. It's important to ask people "who you should connect with ... over and above the people on the org chart," says Rosalee Hermens, who became vice president and CIO at the Timberland Co. last March. Based in Stratham, N.H., Timberland makes outdoor apparel and posts about $1.6 billion in annual revenue.
It's important for a CIO to get on the same page as her boss as soon as possible. During Hermens' first week, she sat down with her boss, Timberland's CFO, and asked, "What do you want to know from me? How often do you want to know?" She then proceeded to rattle off a checklist of items, such as decisions about hiring and firing, choosing vendors, and scheduling routine meetings with other senior managers.
The answers were forthright. "He went down my list and said, 'No, no, no, no, no.'" In other words, his message to her was "Run your department; only engage me on strategic issues," Hermens says. So now she sends him quarterly updates on how IT is accomplishing its strategic goals.
Some CIOs think it's enough to just meet and befriend other business executives -- but it isn't. During initial meetings, Kahle advises, the CIO should ask internal customers four kinds of questions: "How has IT performed in the past? What do you want from us going forward? What's important to the firm?" And finally, "Why is it important?"
The answers to these questions can provide a lot of insight into company culture and how its managers think. In a more mature company, for instance, business executives answer the second question by saying that they want more predictable delivery of IT services. In a less mature environment, they say they want IT faster and cheaper.
The third and fourth questions reveal whether managers place more importance on tactical issues or on strategy. If they're worried about their budgets, they'll ask for certain technology projects because "it will add $10 million to the bottom line," says Kahle. But if they are strategically minded, they will ask for something because it can help create a leadership position for the company. These answers tell a CIO if business managers will work with peers in other departments to prioritize IT requests for the good of the company as a whole. Figuring all this out takes a month, Kahle says.
Hermens also likes to ask simple but important questions: "How are you and I going to work together? Do you like to meet? Do you like emails? It's very basic stuff. But quite frankly, they're your customers."
In cases where a manager faces an ongoing IT problem, a new CIO can build trust and kick-start building a good reputation by offering a high level of service. In a previous job, Hermens offered to call an internal customer every Saturday to get feedback on how IT was fixing email problems. After Hermens' team made these changes, she checked in regularly asking, "Is it better? Worse? The same?" She continued calling in for two months until the system was fixed. During that time, "I was getting feedback, and he was getting a level of comfort [knowing] that I was paying attention."
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