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The Politics Of Being A Retail CIO
So in some cases CIOs cheat a little. Just like a bill getting bloated with provisions as it passes through congress, CIOs are often forced to attach small cleanup efforts to other projects. When I recently asked a group of about 100 IT leaders if they had recently “bloated a project” for cleanup purposes, about 80 percent of the people in the room raised their hand.
This means timelines are extended and budgets are increased in an effort to carry the float. Executives start to question why projects are taking so long and costing so much.
At a CIO networking event a few years ago, a bunch of the local CIOs across all industries were standing in a circle and having a drink. Someone in the group mentioned the “curse” related to speaking at this event. At least one of the panelists had been fired within 30 days of speaking at the event. It had nothing to do with speaking on the panel; it’s just the reality that one in five CIOs job is likely at risk at any given point in time. For this event, in particular, at least one panelist had bitten the bullet in each of the last three years (and the same has been true in the two years since the event I attended).
One of the CIOs in that group spoke up and suggested everyone in the circle look at the person to their left and introduce that person to their boss. He proffered that sometime within the next two years our own bosses would be unhappy with our performance and that it would be smart to make a connection with another CIO in the same group. At least then the role could be kept within the family, he joked.
Although we laughed hard about the concept that night, and I have since told that story dozens of times, the joke has a stinging truth to it: The odds are stacked against long-term tenure within a single organization.
To maximize both the business benefit delivered and their personal career income statements, new retail CIOs should do a few things:
- Make sure they fully understand the scope of the situation they are about take on.
- Learn how to effectively communicate what is going on within the IT organization.
- Work hard to get away from traditional budgeting processes.
- Carefully manage technical debt.
- Assume everything you do will be twice as hard and take twice as long as you expect.
What do you think? If you disagree (or even, heaven forbid, agree), please comment below or send me a private message. Or check out the Twitter discussion on @todd_michaud.
-Marc
September 13th, 2012 at 9:27 am
Having spent 5+ years in the retail industry (moving out a few months back), I tend to agree with some of the points that are raised, but not necessarily all !
Reality is that CEOs of most large retailers were born in the era of no internet, no mobile phones, social media ? what’s that ! And most of them are techno phobic. CEOs of this generation have largely tolerated IT and the CIO or they have made sure that discussions give you pain in all the wrong parts of the body. Yes, there are exceptions, but they are exactly that, a minority of exceptions.
The story is the same world over having seen similar behaviors from Europe and Asia too.
Yes it is hard to make progress of any kind, it does take longer and the budget discussions all over the place with thinning margins. Ideas to change some of these are rarely acted upon (if it has worked for so long, it will eventually work tomorrow too).
You may want to check out
http://cio-inverted.blogspot.com/2012/09/right-or-wrong.html
September 13th, 2012 at 3:02 pm
This discussion parallels the banking industry going through the same challenges. The old adage apply that if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it or upgrade it which is why many computer systems and the software tend to be 10-15 years old!
I believe these industries want a CIO that understand how to keep the gears spinning rather than the latest and greatest gizmos.
September 13th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
That’s an eye opening and frank insight Todd. It’s always interesting to learn about the pressures that these professionals are under.