CIOIN

S. Anantha Sayana

Head-Corporate IT, L&T

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S. Anantha Sayana is Head-Corporate IT, L&T believes that a CIO distills reality from tech hype and takes responsibility of those choices. Side-stepping that responsibility is like belying that trust. Because, ultimately, the technology buck stops at us.

There's always been a lot of buzz around the evolving role of the CIO. And it has constantly emphasized on one thing: The need for CIOs to understand business at its core. I completely agree that CIOs definitely need to know the business and also possess the skills of a change agent. But that shouldn't come at the cost of being a 'non-technologist'.

In any enterprise, the responsibility of making the correct choice where technology, platform, and architecture are concerned, rests solely with the CIO. As the senior-most technology decision-maker, CIOs cannot abdicate their technology duty. Just as the head of a business function needs to be a master in his area of expertise, the CIO cannot shy away from technology. It is akin to a situation where a doctor is unaware of how a drug works. Quite naturally, such a situation will prove detrimental to an organization's health.

I strongly believe that while CIOs don't need to know how to write code or configure a router, they definitely need to have an in-depth knowledge of technology at all levels-from strategic to tactical. It is this grasp of the nuances of technology that ultimately impacts the choices CIOs make for their organizations. Simply put, if a CIO abdicates his technology leadership role, there is nobody within the organization that can take those decisions because, ideally, business shouldn't care about technology, only the solution it delivers. Without the capability to acknowledge, appreciate, and apply technology in the real world, CIOs can't guide their teams as thought leaders. They would then run the risk of being relegated to providing mere managerial inputs.

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I believe that a CIO-irrespective of his age and the stage at which he gets into a CIO role-should grasp and learn technology.

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I believe that a CIO-irrespective of his age and the stage at which he gets into a CIO role-should grasp and learn technology. Understanding technology concepts and its implications is a quintessential requirement for informed technology decision making. The organization believes that a CIO distills reality from tech hype and takes responsibility of those choices. Side-stepping that responsibility is like belying that trust. Because, ultimately, the technology buck stops at us.

Today, the pendulum has rightly swung away from the CIO being a complete techie, let us not allow it to swing towards the other extreme-a technology ignorant CIO.