CIOIN

R.K. Upadhyay, Deputy GM (IT& BD)

BSNL

Executive summary

Why an MBA can bring out the business leader your company needs you to be

Why BSNL's Deputy GM of IT and business development thanks his management education for his ability to see business and cost-cutting opportunities. Before he enrolled himself for an MBA at IIM Bangalore, R.K. Upadhyay, Deputy GM (IT& BD), BSNL, - an IIT Roorkee product - was a self-confessed technoholic.

But that was also before many of his IT initiatives, like scrambled jigsaw pieces, refused to form a picture he wanted: to use IT to run a successful business at BSNL. "A management degree changed that," he says. I could look over an entire process and re-engineer it to get the best business advantage. Now I have all the perspectives: finance, marketing, and even the human view."

Those perspectives have come handy, especially the human ones. When Upadhyay decided to enhance employee productivity, he designed a matrix for seven of BSNL's area managers and used reports to create comparative graphs for these managers. Soon, those at the bottom end of the scale got uncomfortable enough to identify problems within each of their divisions and look for remedies.

Having a management education also allows CIOs meet that ever-important directive: make the business' customers, your customers.

Personal development is about helping individuals become effective leaders able to set direction, persuade others to follow and deliver IT benefits to the business. But no matter how inventive the training courses on offer, many CIOs, like the unfortunate delegate in Herefordshire, are struggling to apply them to the practical problems of running an IT department.

"Training is not a strength," of some economies agrees Alistair Russell, development director at CIO Connect. "It is an important lever to effect change but, unfortunately, it is not always accepted as a significant one. There is an opportunity for us to do more."

Russell runs CIO Connect's program for training the CIOs of the future.

Out and About

Communication skills are important to Richard Snooks When he revamped the IT department at advertising agency WWAV Rapp Collins, he adopted the organization's creative approach to business. "The skill a technologist really needs to acquire is how to communicate," he explains.

"Personal development is something that's been neglected in the past," Snooks says. "A lot of management is based on intuition, but being an effective leader is about psychology: understanding people."

In his early days, Snooks read self-help books like Kenneth Blanchard's The One Minute Manager, designed to help people like him improve their management skills, but he knew he needed more. Today, as CIO at property investment company Capital & Regional, Snooks went out and formed relationships with his contemporaries - even those who worked for competitors Personal development has convinced Snooks that 'managing by walking around' is the best way to do things.

Business-IT Bridge

René Carayol is one person who could never be accused of sitting behind a desk. The dynamic CIO turned management guru fills his time writing, broadcasting and teaching. He acts as a mentor to some 50 people involved in IT.

Leadership, he says, is about finding your strengths and weaknesses and building on the strengths.

"Don taught me how to be a board director. Everywhere I went after that I found a mentor. These people are flattered to be asked. They will become your critical friend: someone who sits inside your tent and says the things to you that other people won't," he explains.

The Teaching

David McKean, 10 years a CIO and now head of IT Leaders, says leadership development may be a status thing, particularly when it comes to qualifications like MBAs, but in reality it's about developing existing skills and pooling knowledge.

IT Leaders is at the sharper end of the development business. McKean teaches project management methodologies such as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Projects in Controlled Environments 2 (Prince2).

"We spend about 20 percent of our time on these tools. They are important, but they are more about training than development. However, there are still a lot of people who don't know about them - about 60 percent of those who attend."