While I may be over-reaching, I don't believe the CIO's job has all that much to do with technology. It's a leadership role that should be focused on management and organization—understanding how to put a business together and how to get people to work together much better. It's clearly a complex role, but the real obstacles facing CIOs often have little, if anything, to do with nuts-and-bolts technology. The more visionary CIOs stay focused on how to continually enrich customer interactions and improve internal efficiencies. They take a companywide view rather than focusing on their own department, and they invite business heads into their planning process rather than assuming they'll appear magically when the time comes to make critical IT decisions. Visionary CIOs frame their budgets based on what can benefit the company broadly rather than responding in a one-off fashion to requests from the operating businesses.
Some of the best CIO visions I've worked with reflect how IT will help achieve companywide, long-term aspirations. At The Mitre Corp., IT folks have a saying, "Mitre knows what Mitre knows" to describe the accessibility of information across the corporation—something they believe distinguishes Mitre from other companies. Ensuring that the body of Mitre knowledge and technology is available to employees, when and where they need it, is critical to its CIO/CTO leadership. As a result, the company formed the Center for Information and Technology (CI&T), which provides the tools and information that let the company do mission-critical work.
Generally, when there's a broader organizational vision like Mitre's that guides the CIO's vision, half the battle is won. But in too many cases, the CEO may be incapable or unwilling to set a visionary course. Then, the CIO can go it alone and engage in his or her own vision process. Visionary CIOs look at each new IT system and ask: How does this dovetail with challenges coming from the broader vision? How will it put us in a more advantageous position?
Vision is about taking a long view—it's not just about planning. While most companies aren't good at vision, they're usually good at planning. Vision is about possibilities. In that sense, a vision doesn't fluctuate as a strategy might to navigate immediate circumstances.
My research on successful vision-driven companies uncovered three themes that all organizational visions must address. The first requires committing to a far-reaching purpose—what I call the raison d'tre.
A successful vision tells a lucid story about what the company wants to be. It goes further than proclaiming (the often arrogant) desires of "Being No. 1," "The Most Sought After," "The Full-Service Solution Provider," or other pithy statements. These aren't visionary, because they're not within the company's control. Maximizing shareholder wealth isn't the primary objective for companies that have sustained growth over decades. While this may seem an anomaly, the reason for the absence of financial targets as the principal goal is that they provide no clue about the internal functions required to achieve them. Shareholder wealth, profit, or Being No. 1 are the metaphorical equivalent of the oxygen, food, and water that the body requires. They aren't the point of life, but, without them, there is no life.
