In the next organization I was fortunate to have a small but a good team and I added a few more based on our projected plans. As we slowly built up systems, people got involved and worked together to achieve success. Having tasted success, they wanted to do more and joined hands to scale greater heights. I could then sense the synergy in the group and general positivity which was wonderful.

It is said that there is no better way to learn than by experience. Experience showed me the magic of team dynamics and the importance of having the right people together. It is pertinent to quote Jim Collins from his book “Good to Great’. He says: “First get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it.” He lays emphasis on the having the right people with you even before you begin your journey. Wrong people in the group may destroy teamwork, damage morale, and spread inefficiency and discontent.

Thumbs up to team work

Now let us look at the advantage that comes with having the right people in your team.

(a) Great teamwork: People feel comfortable working with each other and create a supportive environment. There is synergy in the group and the output often exceeds the targets set. You have self-managed and self-motivated people who need no supervision.

(b) High morale: The positive work environment ups the morale of the team and people feel excited and enthusiasm is palpable. People are self-driven and do not look for incentives.

(c) Quality of work and delivery: People put their hearts into the work and the result is high quality of work and timely execution. Committed individuals and the team practice self-supervision and ensure quality delivery.

(d) Better image of the function: Such enthusiasm is infectious and slowly rubs off on people they come in contact with. People from other functions love to engage with them and the image of the IT department is thus enhanced.

(e) Better connect with the management: When projects are rolled out successfully and the user departments express satisfaction, the message gets carried on to the management. I was in one such situation and the result was that all the further proposals by me got approved quickly and without much questioning (and that made other people envious!?)

(f) Delivery on time: We know most IT projects face hurdles and get delayed. However when right people work in a team, each person pulls his weight and delivers projects on time as the honor of the team is at stake.

(g) Personal bonding: People learn to respect one another and matters like seniority and hierarchy recede to the background. Informal get-togethers and social bonding are not uncommon.

How to build a team

Building the right team is a challenge and to be honest I have been able to build up such a team in only four of the seven organizations I have worked with. Getting the right people on the bus and offloading the wrong ones is easier said than done. Let me deal with this subject in my next article.

I was often amused and pretended sympathizing with them asking a few innocent questions to let them open up and tell me something more about it. What they said revealed quite a lot about their psyche and their level of understanding of the role they had taken up. These people were either CIOs of medium-sized organizations or IT managers from some larger organizations and they met me for a position in my company and in other cases came to seek my advice on their career paths.

Perceived stagnation

What I found was that, in many cases, the perception of candidates was they had reached the limit of what could be done and there was nothing further that IT could do. Strange as it seemed, these candidates, however, seemed convinced of the situation. Let me narrate an instance of my encounter with a candidate who approached me for a job as manager. After the initial exchange of information about his current role and the my requirement, the conversation proceeded thus:

Me: Good to know that you successfully implemented ERP in your organization. Why then would you like to leave this position?

Candidate: Sir, once ERP is implemented there is not much else to do. Plus I have already given reports that users wanted.

Me: OK. Are users making use of the reports and have they derived benefit by reducing inventory, outstanding etc.?

Candidate: They take out reports regularly and I would expect them to put that to use.

Me: Did you explore the possibility of making process improvement in various areas and of reducing the turnaround time of different processes?

Candidate: That is a business call sir. I don’t want to interfere in their area.

Me: May be BI can help in analyzing business performance.

Candidate: I know but other managers don’t listen. Plus, it is difficult to train them.

Me: What about connecting other stakeholders like suppliers and dealers over Internet?

Candidate: That will take a long time.

You may have guessed it right, I rejected this candidate.

Those who came out of this syndrome

A young CIO once approached me requesting me to mentor him on his career path. Besides seeking a direction for his career, his immediate requirement was to change his present job for something better. I tried to understand his current role and factors that limited his progress. His answers were somewhat similar to what is mentioned above, but in this case he was searching for answers.

I talked to him about various possibilities including process re-engineering, BI, content/ document management, web-based processes merging into ERP, introducing mobility, etc. He then left with a few ideas in mind and worked in the same organization for the next two years bringing about changes and getting management’s attention.

He met me again and said he wants a change now, not because he was stagnating but because the organization had limited growth plans and therefore he wanted to use his new-found learning and confidence in another organization that is looking for improvement.

Learning

I thought that was an amazing turnaround displayed by this young man. He simply demonstrated that he could grab initiative and act when others slept. Problems are only in the mind and once you act things start things start falling in place. There is no point in running away from any situation as you may encounter the same problem in the next outing. Unless we use our faculties to improve the situation around us, we may fall short of our self-esteem.

All of this saps his energy. If he is resigned to his fate and carries on with complaints, he faces the danger of stagnation. If he wants to grow and rise up in his profession, he will have to break free and find a way out of this daily rigmarole. This is however easier said than done.

1. Take a break

He is to come out of this monotony, take himself away from the clutter and give some time to himself — time to be quiet, to think and relax, without the constant interference of TV, telephone, and the Internet. He will find that he comes back clear-headed and refreshed, and his work time will be more efficient and productive. He can take off and go for an adventure which brings back joy and the challenge in him.

He can take the entire staff on a development break — let us say a team building exercise which has adventure, role play and pep talk by motivators. Being together but away from the workplace, increases bonding amongst the team members and infuses new ideas into the group.

2. Professional development

It is the responsibility of each individual to effect the change necessary to reinvent work so that it has personal relevance. Companies want that employees take responsibility for their own careers. To accomplish successful career transitions within an existing organization or a new organization requires personal motivation. Successful transition can be achieved by a willingness to learn and by possessing a positive attitude. He has to work on himself to add new skills and to expand his horizon of thought and action. To do that he can work on various ways to renew himself:

3. Reading

A good way to attain knowledge is to read chosen books on management, self-development or on technology. He has to ride over excuses of time availability or of not being in mood. I have often set aside one hour before dinner for reading and then it turns into a habit which lets me finish the book soon.

4. Attending development programs / workshops

I have sometimes seen CIOs shying away from developmental programs arranged by their HR departments. Sessions on leadership, negotiation skills, motivation, or managerial skills can often act as change agents and instill renewed enthusiasm into the individual.

5. Requisition for professional short term courses

Many event management firms and management institutions hold short- or medium-term executive development programs. These may be on management subjects, technology, or personnel development but are very useful. Personally, I have benefited from them and was fortunate to get opportunity to apply the learning in my workplace.

6. Attend seminars

Various technology seminars held from time to time present an opportunity to keep you abreast of the new developments and the changing landscape.

7. Join courses like MBA, MS, etc.

There’s nothing like adding new capability. Of late, I have seen many from the lower- or the middle-management levels taking a shot at new degrees either on full-time or part-time bases. They come out stronger and are ready to take a leap.

Blessed are those who keep reinventing themselves and are ready to grace new pastures. No one knows one’s limits and therefore it makes sense to test our worth and stretch ourselves to the extent that we can.

The CIO has to find a way in which he is more useful to the organization and make technology work for the company in its effort to grow and be more profitable. The plan that he makes for IT has to serve the organization’s objectives and goals. He also has to ensure that he selects the most appropriate technologies and solutions to help the company leap a few steps ahead of the competition. That makes his role strategic in which he has to understand company’s direction and goals and also bring in an element of strategy to his IT plans. That can enrich his role and make IT more effective for the business.

The strategic thought process
Even before the CIO starts with his strategic plan, he has to imbibe the strategic thinking process. Strategic thinking is a key thought process of strategic management framework; it is about finding and developing a foresight by exploring all futures and challenging conventional thinking to foster good decision making. This can be done either individually or collaboratively among key people who can positively contribute to the new thinking. Strategic thinking in this case involves understanding the fundamental drivers of business as also awareness about the technology landscape and various technology options available. He has to develop insight into the requirements of business and the right technology solutions that can materially impact organization response to the challenges faced.

Strategic thinking must take into account the following factors:

Alignment: The IT strategy must fit into company’s vision, mission, competitive situations, and operating strengths.

Goal orientation: Understand the goals defined and then set clear expected outcomes and make explicit links between these outcomes and company’s goals. Evaluate technology solutions accordingly.

Fact-based: Best strategies are based on some data, real facts or educated guesses. The logic behind the strategies should be clear and unambiguous. A formal documentation is recommended to set down the assumptions and factors considered for choices made.

Based on broad thinking: In order to keep the company nimble-footed, it will be best to consider multiple alternatives and a range of scenarios to arrive at the select choice. Consider technology solutions that give the company the required agility.

Focus: It is always tempting to do a lot to please everyone but it is important to go by the set of priorities defined by the company and devise an action plan accordingly.

Agreement: It is important to get people on board to work together and support the initiatives. Therefore steps need to be taken to ensure people participate in formulation of the strategy and feel satisfied that multiple view-points were heard before drawing the final plans.

Adaptable: Strategies need to be flexible and adaptable to the changing times and business changes and also based on learning from experimentation and new information. Plans should not be very rigid but one which moulds itself to the changing scenario.

When to start?

The thinking has to begin now. It is best that CIOs train their mind-sets to think strategy and make efforts to understand the situations around them. Strategic thinking is an input for strategic planning and therefore it’s important to get started and apply the thoughts to the factors mentioned above. It may not be a bad idea to seek help where necessary as the objective is to play a more effective role in the organizations that we are in.

Let us also look at the positives:

• Outsourcing has helped him in shifting a lot of routine tasks and the resultant headaches to a third party that is bound by strict clauses on service level agreements (SLAs).
• He has a lot of automated software tools that are available for server monitoring, network monitoring, diagnosis, etc. which let him identify faults and to rectify them.
• Reliable hardware and software ensure fewer failures.
• Increased availability of hosting and cloud services makes his task easier further.

Sorry, I’m busy!
I have found some of the CIOs quite stuck up with their office work and go home late every day. Vendors find them hard-pressed for time and take several days to get a meeting fixed. People look for them at various seminars and other professional events but are told that they couldn’t make it because of work pressure. Some poor souls call up to cancel their participation at the last minute regretfully citing important meetings, such as those with their Directors or the CEO, as the key reason. There are, of course, others who state very clearly that they are not available during the month-ends and month-beginnings because of the accounts-closing and for generating MIS reports.
I feel sorry for them. Sometimes I reckon there cannot be more unfortunate victims than them and that the industry should do something to improve their lot.

Professionals of wage slaves?
I have often wondered what makes them the most victimized set of professionals. I remember those days when the IT head used to supervise data entry and processing and was answerable for generating various reports to the management. He couldn’t then leave office till the processing was completed and reports were handed over. Today, however, users do their own tasks and reports are available online. Users are made owners of the systems and are custodians of the data quality. Routine IT tasks are outsourced and the CIO plays only a supervisory role.
But he is still busy and an overworked executive! He slogs and still feels he doesn’t get his due.  His evenings are not his own and sometimes misses important social functions.

A possible way out
It is very difficult for any expert to prescribe a solution. Every situation is difficult; some are genuinely difficult, especially if in an organization maintains a high pressure work environment.
One solution could be to delegate and initiate some succession planning so that the incumbent starts taking additional responsibilities and frees up the CIO’s time. Another way could be to stop accepting random / ad hoc requests. He could work on a long term plan in conjunction with the business heads and work as per an agreed plan only. It may not be a good idea to try to impress management with our late sittings – it doesn’t work in many situations.
I had once angered my CEO by closing work in my department at the evening closing office hours but later he realized that no work was affected and admitted so to me. Our difficult position, in some cases, is perhaps of our own making.

Vendor tactics

Vendors find out different ways to approach the seniors and I have seen them adopting one or more of the following means:

a. Golf Buddies: What could be better than playing golf with the CEO or a Director? A short conversation telling the CEO of the great value that the vendor firm can bring to his company, could pave the way for a possible assignment. The CIO would then be told to give info to the vendor so that he can prepare a proposal. The CIO feels short charged.

b. Befriending in a seminar: CEOs and Business managers do attend conferences and seminars organized by industry bodies or global vendors and these vendors lurk around to exchange business cards and start a conversation. Through good selling skills, the vendor can easily win the client’s heart. CEO may see no harm in discussing a possible solution. The CIO then holds the tray as the vendors go through the motion.

c. Leveraging acquaintance: What if the CEO or a business manager happens to be his friend, his batch mate, or an erstwhile colleague? Shouldn’t he make use of that acquaintance? Requesting a meeting for old-time’s sake is not a bad idea and perfectly legitimate. The talk then will usually veer around the business being handled by both and how one can help the other. A known person is always a safe bet, and well, the vendor is on his way.

d. Pressure of targets: We all know that vendor companies usually live on quarterly targets and are known to be aggressive when they fall short of the numbers at the period end. Frantic efforts are then made, including attempts to trap the senior management and they often succeed. Business interests take precedence over propriety and short cuts sound most appropriate for such situations. CIOs, sometimes, are unable to weather this storm.

e. Requesting a review: Present vendors are also hungry for more opportunities and they know that for more business, they have to get to the big fish. So they suggest and strongly advocate a meeting with the top leadership to review the work done thus far, and to understand and capture management’s aspirations and vision. Talking of right things could certainly strengthen their relationship and hence an assured business.

Can the CIO fight back?

They are clever, aren’t they?  More than one such incident may make the CIO take a back seat and watch helplessly. His role may then slowly fade and instead of running the show, he may just be following instructions given. Now how does he fight his way through? Let us look at some of these options:

a. Be proactive: Be on your feet and look around for opportunities in business that you can address, and not wait for the users to come to you with a requirement. If you are already engaged with them, in all likelihood, the business manager will either direct the vendor to you or invite you to be a part of the discussion with him.

b. Be visible to the management: Be in touch with the management through active participation and sending updates as relevant. They would then ask the vendor to discuss with the CIO.

c. Be current with technology developments: Keep your eyes and ears open, be in the know of new developments and think of possible solutions. You will then not be embarrassed when the vendor comes up with his trump card.

d. Don’t give the impression that you are rigid and all for status quo: Vendors often approach the top when they get a feeling that you are an impediment and therefore not worth speaking to. They love progressive CIOs.

The challenge cannot therefore be wished away but be possibly handled well in many cases.

In many such cases, the IT group helped in making the organization more efficient; enabling them to respond well to their customers and successfully roll out e-Governance initiatives. Some of them appeared very successful ventures, and showed a lot of promise. In the case of a few others, I did not find the IT response to be adequate. Though everyone seemed happy with the situation, a closer look gave a feeling that the gains were not sustainable given the inadequacy of the IT infrastructure that supported these initiatives.

Let me explain the issue further. A meaningful IT support to business begins with a plan, a strategy and a definition of a roadmap for the long run. Sometimes this is ignored in the interest of immediate gains, and at other times this aspect is not properly understood. I will list out a few situations to drive home the point.

Piecemeal solutions over time: This is a usual phenomenon noticed in many situations. Each requirement expressed is converted into a system, and programs written to roll out for implementation. Several systems then get developed, often by different programmers, and on a variety of platforms. Whenever the need for an interface arises, some element of data passing or a loose integration through Web services makes everyone happy. Little do they realize that it is these ad-hoc solutions that lead to an avoidable mess as the needs expand, and several solutions get developed.

Total reliance on in-house staff: In several cases, people take pride in announcing that all systems have been developed in-house, and that there is no external input. The impression given is that they have saved costs for the organization, and that the internal staff is good enough to handle all organizational needs. The trouble in such cases is that the group’s knowledge does not grow, and they keep doing what they know. This aspect is reflected in the way the solutions are developed, in the way hardware platforms are chosen, and the manner in which systems are written. The methods at times are outdated, and lack a contemporary approach.

Lack of participation at the management level: Unless the IT head is senior enough and participates in business discussions, the solutions will always be ad-hoc, and lack a long term vision. I have met a few managers who were fully involved in the business initiatives, and were well aware of the business directions and goals in focus. Others were happy to play a background role — the solutions they developed were suspect, as they could have not have held when the business expanded or when the situations got complex. Such an approach remains to be one of a programmer, who only looks for an opportunity to write a program.

Make do with small IT teams: I was surprised to hear from a few Government departments about their achievements in spite of being a small team. They spoke of economizing on budgets and about outsourcing. I thought many of them did not understand the importance of IT, and thought that by outsourcing system development they had done the right thing. There was still no IT direction and their moves were dictated by the appointed vendors.

From all these situations, I learnt that managements which drive such initiatives should ensure that IT solution infrastructure is aligned to organizational growth; that built IT platforms will last for the next few years. It is also important to ensure that the technology is suitably updated, so that IT gives them an edge, and that the organization benefits from technology usage.

All projects, however, do not go wrong and neither are all situations so bad. The very reason for our great going is that we all have several successful projects to our credit and we are confident of achieving many more goals. We talk of our success stories in various forums and willingly oblige magazines when they want to publish our case studies. It is easy to corner all the credit to ourselves and claim that we succeeded in spite of several roadblocks, but will we be honest in saying that no one helped us in the entire show? In case we have not adequately recognized and acknowledged the contributions made by various wings of the organization, it can be regarded as our weakness The management does its bit to approve and sanction funds for our projects; and unless the end users make use of the systems we develop, how can we ever hope to meet the objectives? We, therefore, are never alone and we have to recognize the contribution of others in our endeavors.

It will only be fair on our part to acknowledge the support that we receive from various quarters. This way, on one hand, we can complete the loop and, on the other, encourage them to lend their support for all our future projects. It is normal for people to resist change in the initial stages but we have learnt to get over this part through our experiences. If users willingly accept the technological changes on their own, it will be proper on our part to give them the credit for doing so.

There are various ways in which we can acknowledge their support, let me write down a few:

Management

- Once we get approval for our budget or project, we can write a note to the Board/ CEO/ others, thanking them for the approval and assuring them of our full efforts to make the project(s) successful.

- It is a good practice to send periodic reports to the management giving them an update on important projects so that they feel reassured on the projects/ budgets sanctioned by them.

- On successful completion of projects, send a ‘thank you’ note to the concerned business/ functional heads.

- Let them light a lamp or cut the ribbon whenever we kick-off or launch a project, and ask them to deliver a short address.

- If they have done a good job, cite them as examples/ reference to the rest of the organization.

End users

- Formally thank them for their role once the project has been successfully completed.

- Take them out for a dinner or an event as recognition of their contribution and support.

- Involve them during the design of the processes, drawing a road map etc. to give them a feeling of participation.

These are some of the measures that came to my mind and I am sure you would have many more brilliant ideas. The point of emphasis is that we need the support of various stakeholders for the success of our ventures and we should get them on our side through a genuine sense of understanding and appreciation of their views and feelings.

As a CIO, I have faced these situations often and I may have interesting stories to tell. It was in 1998 when I had just connected all offices of my organization on e-mail. In the initial period, reluctant users would send occasional mails to others only when forced to. We had then connected all offices using VSAT network with a meager bandwidth as it was expensive. But as Diwali approached, the network went numb and it took us a while to discover that it was that sudden burst of traffic (with greetings messages) that choked our network. Then came the New Year and the network started to blink again. People had by then learnt to create new cards using paint brush and other utilities; and those attachments were really heavy. Over the next two years, we took several measures to address this problem. For instance, I sent a mail to all requesting them to be choosy when sending greetings and to be measured by sending to those whom they knew rather than marking it to all. When that didn’t work, we had to block access to central groups for all except a few seniors. In order to bring a smile to those sad faces, we introduced a greeting cards application, asking people to choose cards from them instead of creating their own. We invited all the creative artists to draw out new cards with their signatures and add to the library.

The matter changed over the years as bandwidth got cheaper. With larger pipes the problem has perhaps become manageable or perhaps not quite so, as this traffic still poses a problem often. We know of the choke created on our mobile networks when people’s SMS messages flow with gusto. The mobile companies had to resort to higher tariff for such periods as a measure for controlling traffic.

The greetings conundrum does cause its own sweet trouble. Being a social activity, it makes difficult being harsh with people, and managements generally sympathize with their brethren. This is tricky; CIOs have to find a new way to address this problem. There are few tips that I can offer, though there could be other good methods adopted by some of us.

1. Advisory to users: Users sometimes need to be educated, made aware or simply told to exercise judgment. It may help sending a message to all asking them to send greetings to only those whom they know rather than marking them to all in the organization. I also used to mention of users’ complaints of unsolicited greetings messages from people not known to them.

2. Set an example with our conduct: I decided that I will not send mass messages, and will also not reply to such messages even if they come from close friends. I then persuaded employees in my department and many senior functionaries to observe such celibacy; and it worked.

3.  Create a greetings library for internal usage: This reduces traffic and helps standardizing this ritual besides reducing the data traffic. Those who do not follow this practice can be talked to.

4.  Greetings coming in or going out of the organization: Such incoming and outgoing messages also create a bottleneck. Though not much can be done in respect to our dealings with official contacts, we can request users to make use of birthday greetings sites, or their personal mail (yahoo/gmail etc.) for greeting their friends and other contacts.

Festivals are social events and we have to let people enjoy and greet each other. While such freedom is desirable, it makes sense to keep a watch on the computing and network infrastructure and ensure that it is available to the organization and people at large. That is the responsibility that a CIO is bestowed with, and he has to find a way to ensure that the systems function at all times.

The CIO in most cases is one who initially starts as a programmer or a systems analyst or a business analyst and slowly rises up in the organizational hierarchy or picks up another opportunity and then builds his career till he reaches the level of a CIO. There are of course cases of lateral entry and people from other disciplines moving in to take the position of a CIO. The CIO learns as he builds his career and gets better in terms of effectiveness. He becomes well-adept in understanding functional processes, systems analysis, project management, people management, organizational behavior, etc. He implements wonderful systems and makes an impact. In spite of his efforts he is sometimes not viewed very kindly by the management.

In spite of his efforts, at times, his work does not get the due credit from the management. Reasons could be many, however, in my opinion, he can try to enhance a few skills to create that impact. People may suggest that they attend workshops to develop their leadership qualities, management skills, etc; but here, I wish to deal with another factor which can be useful in making the CIO more effective.

A case for the CIO to pick up a different role
In his normal progression, as described above, the CIO develops into a functional head and like other functional managers acquires skill in his domain but has a narrow outlook. My suggestion is that he should, as a part of his career building exercise, consider parking himself with a consulting or an IT services organization for some time. This gives him an opportunity to look at organizations from the other side as he goes to user organizations and develops solutions for them. In the process he learns new skills which otherwise he would find difficult to acquire. Let me explain about the exposure that he gets and skills he learns.

1. Communication skills: As a consultant he is expected to convince the potential customer of his offering and this he does either through meetings (speaking and convincing skills) or by making presentations. He also gets better in the areas of persuasion and negotiation.

2. Writing skills: The engagement begins with his submitting a proposal to the client and then he has to follow it up with clarifications and justifications. His writing skills therefore get honed. When he becomes a CIO, he can use these skills for putting up proposals and justifications to the management and get them approved faster.

3. Management perspective: Consultants usually talk to the CEO or senior functionaries and take a note of their expectation and engage with them at defined stages of the project. By doing so they start looking at issues from the management’s perspective and this can be of immense help when they later assume the role of a CIO.

4. Project management skills: All consultants and service providers work on fixed timelines and costs. They learn how to draw time schedules & resource plan and have to monitor the progress on a regular basis. As we know any overrun on time or costs is viewed seriously. Project management skill therefore becomes a very useful ingredient of one’s role as a CIO.

5. Documentation: We all know that documentation of specifications, systems documentation, users manuals, policies etc. in user organizations are usually neglected or are poor. However for consultants / service providers this process is fully ingrained in their working. This can be a great advantage for such a CIO.

6. Understanding the customer: Whether at the time of selling their services, project stages or at completion, the consultant has always to be customer centric. For him his existence depends on keeping the customer happy. Now if he carries this perspective with him when he becomes a CIO, he will treat his internal customers with due care and will learn to build the right relationships.

Is it doable?
Well, I am sure, it is. After spending my initial five years with user organizations, I spent the next 10 years with a management consulting organization. What I learnt during this period was of immense value and at times I found myself doing things a little differently as a CIO than my peers in the industry. I was fortunate to have taken that step and I strongly advocate this strategy for career growth.