Are CIOs Ready To Embrace Digital And Take Their Enterprises To Next Orbit Of Growth?

Digital disruption is testing the glory days of the IT Organization. More than ever, the CIOs need to double as a business leader as well as the driver of tech. So, are CIOs ready to embrace Digital and take their enterprises to next orbit of growth?

- Shrikanth G

Aligning IT with business is an age-old debate. This became more pronounced when in the 1990s, IT was initially seen as a cost center and this changed as the years went by and when the ERP wave swept the enterprises in the 1990s, the nondescript MIS department tucked somewhere in the basement, suddenly became a celebrity and thus CIOs were born. Their stature grew because they purchased IT. And today with the advent of Digital, enterprise IT organizations are at the threshold of a major technology transformation.

CIOs by and large also agree that technology is becoming increasingly complex. Too much focus on understanding the technology will distract the CIOs from focusing on areas like business, IT alignment and collaboration which are critical and a key competency expected from a CIO by the CEO and the businesses today. More than understanding the nuts and bolts of each technology, the CIO has to focus on assessing the relevance of these technologies to the organization and explore ways and means to introduce new technologies in the organization.

Clearly the current day CIOs has to unlearn the ‘one mile depth, one inch wide’ strategy and learn the ‘one inch depth, one mile wide’ strategy which will help the CIO to constantly look for scouting new technologies and cost-effective solutions in a world where new is replacing the old, be it technology or process.