Think Flat

Marcus Buckingham, the author of the best sellers “Go Put your Strengths to work” and “Now, Discover your strengths”, was the opening keynote speaker at Sapphire – SAP’s annual event for customers and partners this week in Atlanta,GA. It was a packed keynote with no standing space left and it seemed that over 10,000 people were crammed in into Georgia World Congress’ main hall in downtown Atlanta. Marcus argued that individuals, teams and companies spend too much time focusing on improving on their weaknesses. What they should be really doing is focusing on their strengths and leveraging them instead. His study revealed that one question above all is key to determining the difference between successful teams and unsuccessful ones…. “Do you get the opportunity to do what you do best every day at work?”….If the answer is yes, then your team is likely to be successful. Marcus also argued that as children we already develop core strengths and weaknesses that are difficult to change so its best that we continue to work in areas that are best suited to our strengths.

Now lets apply this concept to the CIOs of Retail and CPG corporations. The question to ask is “What strengths do successful CIOs, lets call them Flat-World CIOs, bring to the table in todays dynamic enterprise ?”  What strengths are most needed in the job in the ever-changing flat world? Based on my conversations with several of these CIOs it all boils down to three core strengths

1. The ability to articulate a vision : For example, this successful CIO was promoted to run a business function, came back in 4 years to become CIO once he saw the IS organization falling apart. He articulated a clear vision to where he wanted to be in 2 years and has made such rapid progress towards his goals, he is regarded as a turnaround artist within his company. He could rally a fairly large IS team around him because of his vision

2. The ability to build a good team: This is not easy to achieve as most CIOs inherit a team already present. But one retail CIO has changed 18 of his 35 directors/VPs in the last 6 months in a frenzied movement to get top quality team members at the top. He strongly believes that a good team is the first step to getting anywhere with or without a vision. Jim Collins (Author of Good to Great) will agree.

3. The ability to build relationships with business : Infact CIOs who come from business are beginning to enjoy a level of credibility with business and getting buy-in far more easily on key business-IT decisions. Its interesting to  see if this trend continues.

You must be wondering, but what about technology? What about the tech-savvy CIO? While that’s an important aspect of the job and has tremendous advantages, I would argue that CIOs with the three must-have qualities described above  have figured out a way to get the right advice on technology and prove that they are successful without really being tech-savvy. They are working on their strengths that are most suited for the job at hand. Hence, as Marcus argued, they are likely to be successful.