IT investment is a big-ticket expediture and there are ways to make that sometimes fraught relationship with the CIO work better.
As the top finance professional in an organisation CFOs and FDs will have working for them, or have some kind of working relationship with, the most senior IT Executive in the business.
According to Gordon-Lovell-Read, CEO of CIO Development, heads of finance may know the head of IT as the CIO, CTO, IT Director, Head of IM or any one of a dozen other labels in common use. "That is a problem in itself,” says Lovell-Read.. “To the purist, the job of a CIO is very different from that of an IT Director.
To the generalist, the titles are interchanged with impunity, expectation and reality end up being misaligned and, not infrequently, the Finance/IT relationship is sub-optimal. We will be exploring this in the coming months as we examine how finance professionals can get more from IT.”
He adds: “Whatever the title in use at your place, someone will be the most senior "IT executive" and, for now, we can neutralise the job-title debate by using that term.”
So, what kind of animal is an IT executive?
CIO Development have been looking at this over many years, working with a large number of IT executives, and conclude that there are essentially four different types, based on experience and character. The research identified the Paratrooper, the Consultant, the Professional and the Executive through a mix of in-depth interviews and neuro-linguistic programming tests that helped to spotlight personal identity, values and beliefs, behaviour and capability.
“The first two types are company outsiders and the last two are company insiders. Each have different strengths and weaknesses,” says Lovell-Read.
To get you started, it turns out that the different traits of the four types of IT executive are so well defined that you can gain a quick and general indication of your colleagues type by considering their executive experience:
The Paratrooper - Experienced technology executive, mostly in other organisations.
The Consultant - Experienced general business executive, mostly in other organisations.
The Professional - Experienced technology executive, mostly in your organisation.
The Executive - Experienced general business executive, mostly in your organisation.
“We will be describing these types in detail in our ongoing series of articles as well as providing Finance Week members with access to diagnostics and peer group discussions. It should help Finance to explore and understand your own environment.”
“Identifying which category an IT executive falls into has already proven to be of great use to them in building their strengths and addressing areas for improvement. Making the same level of understanding available to Finance Directors will unlock new insights into the dialogue with, and deliverables from the IT executive.
The next instalment of DO CFOs Get IT? will provide an in-depth review of the mindest, strengths and weaknesses of The Paratrooper.