“Sadin on Digital” episodes explore the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business. Wayne Sadin and I focus in particular on what CEOs and boards must do to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. Today, we dive deeper into a topic we’ve touched on a couple times before: “technical debt.” Through some evocative metaphors, Wayne explains why it matters—and how to avoid it building up.

Episode 9

In this episode, Wayne and I talk about the CIO. He says the CEO gets the CIO they settled for. If the CIO can’t hit your strategic agenda, and help you become a partner, and move the business forward, you’re setting your sights to low. Don’t settle, he says, for a mediocre CIO.

He says the CIO needs to get on the truck if you deliver things. Get in the warehouse if you store things. Get on the factory floor if you make things. Go on a sales call and see what happens when your salespeople get tossed out on their ear.

He then goes on to say that most executives work in vertical silos – as in, I’m in charge of department A or B or C. But he says the CIOs who are effective get out of that way of thinking, and start thinking of themselves as the Chief Process Person.

He tells the story of how he asked a CIO, “What do you think is your biggest accomplishment.” And the CIO said, “Oh, it’s really simple. My IT budget was 0.91% of sales, and I was able to keep it to 0.88% of sales.” Wayne says that’s just nuts – what if they had given him 0.03% of sales to focus on top line innovation, or process improvement, or customer satisfaction?

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