CASE STUDY
Wishart : I think boards , as executives , are still learning what questions to ask . The separation of technology from business process is now almost impossible . The two of them are very clearly together and boards and executives are learning now how best to engage with technology leaders to ask the right questions . some software on it and we ’ ll tell you what it ’ s going to cost .’
If I go back to 2000 , HTML and wireless markup language for mobiles was emerging . However around about 2010 , cloud services were truly emerging .
But I do think consistently they asked these sorts of questions which are : ‘ What ’ s the best way that we could prioritise our investments in technology ?’; ‘ What ’ s the best way that we could start to think through measuring return on investment ( either through profitability or productivity or even end-user value )?’
The other aspect you ’ re looking at is what it really costs to run the business and what opportunity there is for either lessening the costs or getting more value from the cost base ? There is also more discussion about moving quickly , with speed . My sense is we need more focus on velocity – speed with focused direction .
And then the last one is really how do you have these balanced discussions at an executive or a board level , where you ’ re confident that the people around you all speak and understand the same language . Technology leaders have to use language which builds trust and understanding .
You were talking about CIOs operating under a different set of Ts and Cs . Could you just elaborate a bit more on that ?
Wishart : In the early days of my career it was pretty simple . Typically , CIOs managed data centers , procured hardware with often long lead times and told the business ‘ come back in three months when we ’ ve procured it , we ’ ve racked it and we ’ ve put
People joining a business were far more technically literate and expectations of what was good technology and user experience was shaping up . Technology was becoming more accessible and vendors started working directly into business leaders for support .
For CIOs this meant pivoting quickly to becoming more commercial , business savvy or risking disintermediation from the business discussions . So CIOs have had to evolve the role , placing emphasis on what is often referred to as soft skills . If we ’ re going to be at the front end of the conversation , if we ’ re going to be considered to be at the front end of decisions , we ’ re going to have two things : we ’ re going to be trusted and we ’ re going to have credibility that we can back up what we say we will do to help this business go forward .
And that ’ s why I think the game shifted ; because 20 years ago you didn ’ t have a choice . If you wanted something done , technology would lock you up and say : ‘ Guess what , I ’ ll see you in six months .’
You had no choice . Everything changed with mobility and SaaS offerings in the market that suddenly gave the business a choice and whether they used you or didn ’ t . And from my perspective I think the only way to stay up front and be influential is to have trust and credibility .
Further , cost transparency and providing clarity of how best to optimise the spend is simply now expected . CIOs who don ’ t will do so at their own peril . p
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