|
Sit Down, Stay Awhile (Continued)
Thome also credits his bosses with understanding technology's strategic importance and committing resources. "They knew that to survive in our business -- which was becoming more competitive -- it was going to be done with technology," Thome says. "They knew we were building tools, not toys."
CIOs like Thome build long tenure by getting to know the business and finding ways to add value through IT, not just fulfilling projects at the behest of a unit leader. "There's a very strong interest on the part of IT executives to get more engaged in the business," Forrester's Orlov says. "If the IT executive understands how to run IT itself like a business and get more engaged in the firm, to the degree they are successful, then why quit?"
Short tenure can often be traced to a dysfunctional CEO-CIO relationship. CIO Spencer Hamons of San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center (SLVRMC) in Alamosa, Colo., says the newness of the CIO position relative to that of the CEO or CFO has created a learning curve for executive teams that have to learn how to interact with CIOs. Early on many top IT performers who lacked business acumen were promoted to a "level of incompetence," as he puts it.
As technology becomes more important to company success, executives have had to adapt. Because more midmarket CIOs report directly to CEOs, CIOs have had to become business savvy or risk losing their job. CEOs, too, have adjusted by bringing IT executives into the C suite, placing greater trust in the IT department. An impressive 74% of CIOs in our survey report having a seat on an executive committee.
Despite shorter tenure statistics this past year, Hamons believes CIOs have come a long way. "We've finally turned that corner where the CIO has been in a position long enough that their peers see the CIO as a benefit." CEO Russ Johnson of SLVRMC agrees: "[IT] has gone from an adversarial, uncooperative relationship with other departments to a collaborative, responsive and appreciative one. This led to successful system implementations in critical areas, including laboratory, pharmacy, radiology, business office and others."
Yet pulling off successful IT implementations while looking over your shoulder isn't easy. CIO Steve Fishman of manufacturer Ultrasonic Precisions Inc. has watched his IT peers struggle to balance decision making and short tenure. "There's too much of an ROI among younger CIOs," he says. "Their entire careers are based on a six-month, nine-month or one-year projection. You have to measure [technology] based on the level of productivity that will work over a five-year period, for example."
Fishman has been at Ultrasonic since 1973 and became CIO in 1989. The C-level title has given him ample opportunity to build on the CIO-CEO relationship. For instance, he recently introduced Microsoft Dynamics CRM to the CEO's desktop and asked that she use -- and enjoy -- it. The goal is to make her a champion of the technology. "By making the CEO and CFO part of IT, I've guaranteed my tenure," Fishman says.
|
