The Role of CIO in the Digital Era

Provocations The IT function must facilitate organizational flexibility and agility to accommodate the complexity and turbulence of digital business environments. The goal of IT management practice must be to nurture capabilities that facilitate the shaping, rejuvenation, and revitalization of business strategy.

Predictions for IT management CIO as a business strategist A new logic for IT and business strategy Business and IT will shape each other iteratively and co-adaptively CIO as an e-business co-leader The web is mission critical E-commerce centered operations will be ubiquitous Share responsibility with CMO (chief marking officer), CLO (chief logistics officer)

Predictions for IT management (cont.) CIO as a transformation champion The network infused organization will be pervasive Push to higher levels of virtualization and networking CIO as a system architect Balance between the autonomous discretion and symphonious controllability for the ultimate purposes Orchestrate the focused competence toward more profitable, more flexible, and more knowledgeable in the way of cooperative networks

Predictions for IT management (cont.) CIO as a customer service manager Customer service quality will become a key metric for assessing the performance of IT managers CIO as an infrastructure visionary Design an effective governance of IT resources as well as a blueprint with adequate scalability and adaptiveness to emerging technologies

Predictions for IT management (cont.) CIO as a solution integrator Prove the enterprise systems, including ERP, SCM, KM, CRM, BI and etc., to be marginally useful CIO as a talent builder Leverage the enterprise ’ s IT skills to differentiate the competitiveness Capitalize the intellectual capital to promote, grow and acquire new needed one to think of HR as a core competency

Predictions for IT management CIO as an organizational architect Align the coordination mechanisms into the corporate management system CIO as a sourcing manager Manage IT activities through the selective sourcing and multi-sourcing arrangements CIO as a strategic alliance manager Participate the jointly managing value chains, shared projects, and continuous activities in a highly emergent configuration of opportunities

The CIO profile

Extended readings Zmud, R. W. ed., (2000), Framing the Domains of IT Management Research: Glimpsing the Future through the Past, Pinnaflex Press. Evans P. and T. S. Wurster (2000), Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy, HBSP, MA.