Today’s technology environment evolves quickly, but fluency in tech advancements may not be enough. Michael Krigsman has advice for how to keep up. CIOs and technology leaders need to understand the impact of technology on their companies, while also honing business and communication skills.

In this episode, Michael Krigsman, industry analyst and publisher of CXOTalk, describes the changing IT landscape. He tells us why CIOs need to have a deep understanding of technology and a relationship with IT. He gets into the importance of partnerships between the CIO and other C-suite leaders. Michael also describes communicating with the board, how to decipher what they’re seeking from their company, and understanding the needs of business stakeholders.

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Key Quotes:

• “Since you have a sophisticated set of stakeholders who understand technology, it is incumbent on the CIO to identify those spots where IT can really support finance or support marketing beyond being just a service provider for technology integration. The only way to make that happen is for the CIO to really have a deep understanding of the finance needs and then understand and be able to figure out the intersection points.”
• The CIO is continuously asked to innovate, be a driver of innovation, and at the same time keep costs contained, cut costs. This means the CIO needs to be thinking out of the box
• “If the CFO is focused not just on being a bean counter, but really focused on, ‘How do we enable innovation inside the organization from a funding, from an investment standpoint?’ The most innovative CIOs recognize that this innovation piece is essential to the future of the business.”
• “You also have the capability for the CIO to either be a technologist or to be able to transcend the technology and be a business leader. Because they're not the same.
• “If you're a CIO, your stock and trade is understanding the needs of your business stakeholders so that you can serve the company as a whole, not just with technology, but from a business perspective. And so, the hard truth is, if it's beyond your experience and your organization is growing and is vibrant, you better learn, because if you don't, you will devolve into CIO irrelevancy, and that's a bad place to be.”
• “There needs to be a consensus-driven response inside any organization, and we need to be part of that because we need the best minds in the company, the best leaders in the company, to put our heads together and think this through. So, the strategy for the CIO is, yeah, you want to be the hero, but you have to also know when to be a team player.”

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Time stamps:

02:00 The role of CIO as a business leader

04:20 Using IT to support the business

07:30 Getting what we need from technology

09:00 Innovating for the future as CIO

14:45 The secret power of IT

16:45 Developing crucial CIO skills

19:30 How the pandemic shifted the CIO’s reputation

21:00 Creating consensus within your organization

23:00 Preparing for a period of uncertainty

25:00 How to work effectively with boards

28:00 Getting on the same page as stakeholders

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Links:

Michael Krigsman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkrigsman/
CIO Exchange on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vmwcioexchange
Yadin Porter de León on Twitter: https://twitter.com/porterdeleon 

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For more podcasts, video and in-depth research go to https://www.vmware.com/cio

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Keywords: 

cio, cio exchange, VMware, innovation, technology, business, CFO, leadership