People Power
In Summary Vijay Ramachandran
The CIO Edge
By Graham Waller, George Hallenbeck & Karen Rubenstrunk
Published by Harvard Business Review Press.
Rs 995
What does it mean to be a CIO? Is the role about implementing ERP or cloud computing? Or is it about helping an FMCG organization increase rural penetration or gain a better understanding of customer expectations? I would state the latter.
In fact, I would argue that the CIO role—instead of being about driving technology enablement for enterprises—should be about being a key player in creating an organization’s blueprint for growth. I readily admit to being biased in my approach. Anything I say, that will get CIOs a voice at the table; anything that keeps them out of the tactical and in the strategic.
That’s one of the reasons why I really like The CIO Edge. The authors are not only convinced that soft skills yield hard results but go on to state that “focusing on leadership and people skills—the soft things that many CIOs tend to minimize in their quest to keep up with their day-to-day responsibilities of managing IT—is, in fact, the biggest determinate of their success, or failure.”
Read on for excerpts from reviews of this book from two of your peers who, like me, heartily recommend it:
CIO REVIEWS Expand all | Collapse all
Srinivasan Iyengar COO, Aegon Religare Life Insurance
The CIO Edge, is a thought-provoking book about the key attributes that make a great CIO. While the seven steps might look and sound regular, a detailed look throws up excellent insights thus enabling every CIO to re-discover himself and become a visionary CIO. The authors have covered critical areas like communication skills, people skills and leadership attributes in great depth and with right amount of anecdotal proof. These examples prove the validity of a theory and are typically missing in most similar books. This book is a must read for CIOs and for those who aspire to be a CIO. I would also recommend this book to non-CIOs as that would enable them to understand the relevance and criticality of a CIO’s role in supporting and delivering business goals.
Joydeep Dutta CTO, ICICI Securities
Refreshingly, this book does not talk about either technical or business competencies that a CIO should possess or about how technology projects ought to be managed. The authors feel that a CIO needs to focus on personal leadership, which is about making a commitment, being collaborative, connecting with people, mastering communication, being inspirational, and developing others’ capabilities. The book dedicates a chapter to each of these skills, illustrated with case studies, with practicing CIOs sharing their stories. The acceptance and establishment of the role of the CIO has been a long standing challenge in many organizations. I believe that this book will help both aspiring and practicing CIOs to become more successful. While CIOs will relate to the examples in the book, the principles of leadership apply to other functions as well, and therefore would be good reading for anyone in a senior leadership role.
