Recent time, with the resurgence of social media, has seen the emergence of another debate about the CMO cornering a large proportion of the IT budget. This news which could be based on some data points in a survey in a small geography for a sub-segment of a domain, the conclusions depict the CMO usurping the CIO chair; a real stretch of imagination, but which has a group of CIOs vehemently opposing this purported trend. Some discussion groups even want the CIOs to confront their respective CMOs and assert their power over the IT budget.

The CEO factor examined

So when I had an opportunity to partake in a CEO get together, I was looking forward to clarifying a few assumptions and doubts. If you are wondering what this has got to do with the CFO and the CMO, well along with the CIO, they all typically report to the CEO who is expected to mediate in case there is a conflict within his team. The above presumed conflicts will sooner or later end up for arbitration or follow the general trend where the CIO backs off.

I love interacting with CEOs (including my own CEO); they are the better barometer of IT progress and use within their company than the CIO is. As the primary leader of the enterprise, s/he sets the behavioral norms and culture of the company. Their belief system percolates down the spine of the company influencing processes, process discipline, technology deployment and use, risk behavior and finally the cohesiveness of the Executive Committee that runs the company.

Since I knew most of their CIOs it was easy to create correlations: big manufacturing CEO used social media extensively, his CIO is well known for success; mid-pharma CEO who thought of IT as a cost center had high attrition in IT; a diversified group’s young digital native CEO had the CIO soaring high from success to success. You get the trend; the CEO is the lead indicator of how the job of the CIO is likely to be in a company and where s/he will stand in case of a conflict with other CXOs.

The reporting structure

If you benchmark companies with CIO reporting to CEO versus other CXOs, the comparison set clearly demonstrates the ones with the CEO fare better even when the CEO is not necessarily IT friendly. In the control group which ranges from 30-80% (CIOs reporting to CEO) depending on the geography and industry, the next differentiating factor is the CEOs appreciation, tolerance, averseness or indifference to IT. It is evident that the CIO directly or indirectly influences the success of the CIO.

Should the CIO be insecure about the span of control, budget, or technology disruptions? Most CIOs aren’t but the hype created by various factions would make you believe that the CIO is shivering with fear uncertainty and doubt (FUD factor) on his/her future. Reality being diametrically opposite, I believe that CIOs should stop reacting to rumors and instead start proactive communication on the contributions to different parts of the enterprise in making the CMO or the CFO successful. Let them be at the receiving end for a change!

A call to the Editor resulted in her portraying the reality she had witnessed on the discussion table that included some heavy weight CIOs. They were tentative in their approach to reaching out to customers; this was not viewed kindly with heavy brick-walling. A casual interaction was fine, but not continued engagement that may result in a different reality for the sales / marketing teams. Of course, there were a few outlier CIOs who did systemically meet the customers and shared insights with their teams.

My reassessment
My reality being different from the majority, I decided to chat up with some CXOs to determine if reality was indeed that grim. I picked a few high-touch industries like retail, banking and airlines, and added some low touch ones like pharmaceuticals and FMCG where the end consumer is largely faceless. Then I started searching through the good old visiting card rolodex, my connections on social media and professional networking sites; finally adding some with help from industry bodies.

I had some apprehension if I will get candid responses, so I decided to use the research envelope which does normally get open answers; you know researchers are perceived as non-threatening since in a statistical model, there is no identity. The modus operandi worked well and my research was successful in capturing reality with high fidelity. The correlation to industry or size of company was not decisive, the general trend was however quite evident.

Marketing and Sales have over the last few years faced uncertainty due to the global economic uncertainty and the impact it has had on consumer sentiment. Corporate as well as individual spending has seen a general holding back. Do we really need to spend? Do I really need the latest gadget? Such decision points have resulted in pressure that has everyone looking inward more than outward. Natural reaction has been to hold on to the fragile relationships. What if the discussion turned away the customer? What do you know about customers anyway?

Mr CIO, you have no business to …!
One of them quite paranoid went on to state that IT has no business prying into relationships; he had advised his team to keep everyone at bay like the pirates; auditors, information security, anyone who asked for data was turned away. Even the BI reporting was curtailed lest it be used by someone to create different conclusions. The company in question was struggling for growth though doing better than some of their competitors. In the high growth era, they were the leaders, now that appeared to be chapters in a history textbook.

Can the CIO change this behavior? Being an optimist, I would say, probably yes! Is it worth the effort? Many would say, certainly not! And I tend to agree with the collective wisdom though with a caveat. I believe that CIOs are always at the short end of disruption; so they should not back off in the face of this push back but continue the dialogue while getting others behind the cause. Different perspectives have always created new opportunities. After all, you cannot expect different results if you continued doing the same thing over and over again. I have lived by this maxim and I am still alive.