CIOs are best positioned to be CEOs

Till recent past, there was a belief that there was no path for CIOs to becoming CEOs. That is changing and changing very fast for the right reasons. A majority of CIOs are now indicating that they have ambitions to become CEOs.

Why not?

When every business out there is becoming or has become a tech company, who's better positioned to become a CEO than the CIO who knows all the business units, their pain points, their growth strategy and a lot more.

More CEOs out there are looking to IT leaders to drive business strategy — and to do so through technology. The need for business-savvy CIOs to lead organizational transformation has never been higher.

However the biggest hurdle for this shift is in the thought process of the organizations. CIO organizations are still seen as support functions, order-takers, a cost center. You ask any CIO who their customer is, you won't be surprised to hear that their customers are business heads within the organization. This is a high-risk misconception that could lead to the erosion of the market relevance of the company.

The longer the distance between the CIO org and a real customer, higher the chances of failure. Thankfully, many organizations have realized this and are changing their way. As companies are becoming tech and digital companies, CIO role is becoming more critical and they are being seen as someone with equal stakes in business decisions.

There are some major adjustments to be made in order to make CIO role successful for the changing world order. Currently, a majority of the time IT spends goes into "Fixing things", "Keeping The Lights On". This is old thinking and it must change.

The CIO role now has many additional responsibilities, such as:

• Chief Digital Officer
• Chief Innovation Officer
• Chief Data Officer
• Chief Security Officer
• Chief Strategy Officer
• Chief Transformation Officer
• and lot more

Moving forward, it’s best that the entire C-Suite team understand this fact and work with CIO to know how and what it can do for the company. It is also best for CIO to get into the heads of C-Suite and find what they are worried about.

When a CEO picks up someone for CIO, it must be clear for both of them that the CIO is positioned to becoming CEO and enable CIO to have enough stakes in business decisions across the org. Hire CIOs not just from technical background but someone who is business-savvy.

Hence, CIOs are best positioned to becoming CEOs. This is possible only when:

• CIOs find a way to delete KTLO to someone and focus on driving business decisions.
• Not just deliver what business asks for, deliver what business really needs.
• CIOs know the business better than the business leaders.
• CIO is every business leader's ally in the org.

Having a mechanism to delegate "Fixing stuff" and "Keeping The Lights On" in a reliable and economical way allows CIOs have more time to focus on business and more money on the table to invest in future-facing business capabilities.

AiDOOS is an on-demand IT platform that takes away the pressure of KTLO from CIOs in a simple and meaningful way.