Why Can't My CIO Be More Like Me?

Bloomberg, By Susan Cramm - Jun 24, 2010

Every profession has its stereotype. Operations guys are risk adverse. Marketing types are emotional. 

Finance wonks are narrow-minded. CIOs are interpersonally awkward and out of step with the business.

Stereotypes persist because, at some level, they contain some truth. People gravitate to professions that fit their motivators and abilities. Operations guys are disciplined. Marketing types are creative. Finance wonks are detailed oriented. CIOs are systems thinkers who are fascinated by how things work.

Our differences are important and define our unique contributions. But differences are also inconvenient. And many companies are incapable of effectively managing the differences and try instead to manage out the differences.

In the last 15 years, companies have wanted CIOs to act less like CIOs and more like general business leaders. Problem is, when you try to have it all, sometimes you don't get what you really need. In thinking about what you need out of your CIO, consider the following:

The CIO job is really, really hard. Imagine trying to deliver complex products and services to technically unsophisticated and, for the most part, patently uninterested business "partners." Factor in the difficulty of ensuring security and operational stability while delivering new capabilities. Consider the difficulty of doing so while incorporating disruptive technologies and constraining funding. And do all of the above while convincing your internal team to stay focused and motivated. The CIO job is hard and it makes many good CIOs look bad.

CIOs, in their heart and soul, should love technology. You need a CIO who knows how can technology can be applied, what technology is ready for prime time, and how to make sure that it works, rather than hurts, the business. Consider AT&T's iPhone incident. The company's technical infrastructure failed to process orders and keep information secure. There are myriad possible root causes — forecasting, financing, staffing, and technical. If options were considered, risks assessed, and decisions were made that ended up being wrong, that's understandable. But if any of the executives in charge (sales, finance, operations, and IT) didn't know what they didn't know, that's inexcusable.

Great CIOs are technologists who have mastered the art of leadership. They are leaders who possess technical acumen, but also understand how to improve and grow the business, influence others, deliver results, and drive strategic change. Unfortunately, most leaders, and CIOs, are good, but not great. Research shows that only 10% of leaders possess strong capabilities across the five critical attributes: character, interpersonal skills, professional acumen, results orientation and strategy change.

If you're lucky, you'll have a great CIO. More likely, you'll have a good one. Generalists don't make good CIOs. If your company spends a lot on IT or is interested in doing something remotely interesting with technology, don't trade off technical skills for general leadership skills. It's okay that the CEO of BP isn't a drilling expert, but let's hope (for BP's sake and ours) that he has one sitting in his staff meetings. As long as your CIO is technically savvy and able to deliver results in a high integrity manner, cut her some slack and lend her a hand. Help her define how technology can drive your business. Partner with her to sell in a strategic initiative. Coach her on how to present the IT spend in a way that woos the CFO. Take the lead on driving strategic business change.

It's our differences that make us special and underlie our unique contribution. Since your CIO will never be like you, or you like him, it's much more productive to focus on perfecting the relationship and forgo trying to perfect the person.

IT execs urged to take MBA path to CIO's chair

By Sol E. Solomon, ZDNet Asia,Friday, August 28, 2009 06:02 PM

ICT managers eyeing chief information, technology or operating officer positions should consider an advanced degree course such as the MBA (Master of Business Administration), if they have not had formal tertiary training in business, suggests an academic.

Professor S. Viswanathan, head of IT and operations management of the Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), said courses for more experienced managers focus on strategic thinking, leadership, teamwork and inter-personal skills, rather than technical skills.

"Teaching the state of art in technology, and current strategic and business issues is important. However, because the technology and business context changes rapidly in today's world, it is important to impart broad problem solving, analytical, teamwork, interpersonal and conceptual thinking skills that can help the students over a lifelong career," Viswanathan told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail.

"While an MBA degree is not essential for executives to climb up the corporate ladder, other things being equal, having one is always an advantage," he said. "Besides, the frameworks, concepts, strategic thinking and business vocabulary that one learns in an MBA program is very useful in senior management positions."

For instance, practice assistant professor Michelle Cheong noted that the banking industry is currently looking to strengthen its internal processes and operations. To support this focus, there is growing demand in the sector for technology and operations professionals who understand the banking industry, said Cheong, who is director of Masters and professional programmes at the School of Information Systems, under Singapore Management University (SMU).

The university's Master of IT in Business (Financial Services) program is co-designed and co-delivered with business and IT leaders, she said in an e-mail interview, which helps capture "a successful blend of managerial and practical skills and know-how". It trains professionals to transition into leadership roles, such as head of technology and operations, she added.

The course focuses on the banking industry's specific needs for technology, process and operations professionals in four major segments: capital markets and investment banking, corporate and institutional banking, private banking, and retail banking.

The NTU also offers an MBA course with specialization in technology, and is designed for participants with two to 10 years of work experience, Viswanathan said.

The school also runs its Advanced Management Program (AMP) and Executive MBA (EMBA) for general managers or heads in their respective functional domains. At this level, strategic thinking and leadership are more critical so even functional domain courses will have strong strategic orientation, he said.

At the undergraduate level, the NTU offers a double-degree in Computer Engineering and Business, as well as the Bachelor of Business (Bbus) program with IT specialization. The Bbus (IT) students learn business management subjects and will receive a business degree, but they also attend elective courses in business IT such as enterprise systems and IT in financial services.

Viswanathan said: "Typically, most IT jobs in large organizations require a good understanding of the business processes in a particular functional area. The Bbus (IT) and double-degree holders are effectively able to communicate well with the user--that is, business managers--as well as with the technical staff in the IT organization."

Saying No To A Bonus: Google's Kordestani Declines His Award

Forbes, Joseph Tartakoff , 03.25.09, 08:08 PM EDT

Wall Street may now be infamous for wealthy execs clinging to their bonuses even in the midst of a downturn, but that’s not always the way it plays out in big tech.

Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) sales chief Omid Kordestani, for example, turned down the $1.4 million bonus he was awarded in March. From the company’s proxy statement: “Omid Kordestani declined his 2008 bonus payment ... Omid also declined to receive any equity awards in 2009.”

True, every other senior Google exec kept his 2008 bonus. And Kordestani is worth $1.4 billion, according to Forbes, so he certainly doesn’t need the extra cash.

Alexander Cwirko-Godycki, a research manager at Equilar Inc., a Redwood Shores, Calif., company that specializes in executive compensation, said an increasing number of executives at big tech companies were forgoing bonuses as the economy weakens, even when those executives were achieving some of their performance goals.

A recent Equilar report found that technology companies accounted for the largest chunk—38%—of the 133 companies that have cut the base salaries of executives since June. Financial firms made up a comparatively small 12 %.

At Google, base salaries of top executives stayed flat last year and bonuses for top executives fell only slightly. Former chief financial officer George Reyes, senior vice-president for product management Jonathan Rosenberg, senior vice-president for engineering and research Alan Eustace and chief legal officer David Drummond each made $450,000 in base pay, the same as in 2007. Their base wages were all bumped up from $250,000 to $450,000 that year. Google didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

As usual, the Google triumvirate of Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin (who are all paid $1 a year) declined to participate in the company’s executive bonus plan in 2008, according to the proxy statement, filed Tuesday.

Brin and Page are worth $12 billion, while Schmidt is worth $4.4 billion.

Related Articles:

Google still hiring, even after layoffs

Google to Cut About 200 Jobs in Sales and Marketing

Things That CIOs Should Know Keep Their CEOs Awake Nights

By Timothy Prickett Morgan, ITJungle, March 23, 2009

This year is a bit of a mental and emotional challenge as well as being an economic one. And the whiz kids at Gartner make a habit and a business out of trying to say something intelligent about the goings-on in IT Land to help CIOs cope with conditions and their bosses, the CEOs, presidents, or owners.

We are all in a bit of a state of shock absorbing the changes to the economy, our businesses, and our lives. But you have to shake it off and start planning for the future, all the same, says Gartner, which released a report called CEO Concerns 2009: Dealing with the Downturn last week. (You can view that report at this link.)

"Today's CEO concerns provide an advanced look at what will become CIO priorities in 6 to 18 months," explains Jorge Lopez, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "We've identified these conclusions based on more than a dozen sources of CEO insights, our own analysis of business and economic trends, and changes in the IT landscape."

So without further ado, here are the seven things that are apparently keeping your CEO up at night, in order of importance:

1. Restructuring: This is the real problem caused by economic instability. Layoffs of employees and shutdowns of business units, mergers and acquisitions, and rejiggering of entire industries is happening out there and very likely at your company, too. "As the restructuring plan unfolds, CIOs must be prepared to clear the table of current plans and start again, deliver significant cost reduction, deliver significant headcount reduction, cancel some major projects no longer aligned with survival and ensure that all outsourcing partners are viable," says Gartner in the report. "At the same time, they will need to deal with unexpected acquisitions and divestitures, manage higher risk taking on projects, work with lower procedural obstacles and stronger CIO powers, and build contingency plans for significant suppliers."
   
   
2. Can't Write Off Fast Enough: CIOs have to be ready to jump at a moment's notice and help in any way when the CEO wants to start paring down. And watch out for talent raids on your organization even if you preserve key IT employees after layoffs.
   
   
3. Loss of Business and Governmental Trust: The lack of transparency and regulation in the economy has been exposed, and people are not looking too kindly at businesses and governments. A lot of trust has been lost, maybe even more trust has been lost than money, if you can believe it. And unlike money, you can't borrow trust. (Gartner didn't say that--I did.)
   
   
4. Globalization Instability: Supply chains and manufacturing operations are now global, just like sales channels have been for many years. When one part of the world goes haywire, it can have far-reaching effects.
   
   
5. New Major Regulation Coming: After decades of deregulation, expect a backlash. New regs from local, state, and national governments means changes to IT operations and business processes. And that means headaches akin to Sarbanes-Oxley. Brace yourself.
   
   
6. Green Is Not Going Away: Going green with IT operations was all the rage in the IT press right up to about August 2008, when the economy went south and cutting costs--a lot more than you can do by saving energy in the typical data center--came to the front burner. But Green IT is still on the back burner, waiting for its turn to be a priority again. Go green where you can, when you can. Save that money.

That's Gartner's take on what CEOs are worried about as it related to IT. I think CEOs are not all that complex, and I think some of these issues are overblown by Gartner. I think CEOs are only worried about two things: staying in business now and laying the groundwork to position themselves to beat the competition when--and if--the economy returns to something akin to normal. Staying in business now usually means cutting costs and preserving as much revenue and profits as possible. Anything a CIO can do to cut costs is needed right now, no matter what pet projects might be on the table.

CareerBuilder.com Survey Reveals Top Ten Wackiest Mistakes Candidates Made in Job Interviews

Yahoo Finance news, Wednesday March 12, 8:00 am ET

CHICAGO, March 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- What's the most unusual thing a candidate did in a job interview? Fall asleep? Disappear? Bring his/her mom? CareerBuilder.com released its annual survey of the most outrageous interview mistakes candidates have made, according to over 3,000 hiring managers and HR professionals nationwide. This year's Top Ten list includes:

• Candidate answered cell phone and asked the interviewer to leave her own office because it was a "private" conversation.
• Candidate told the interviewer he wouldn't be able to stay with the job long because he thought he might get an inheritance if his uncle died
• and his uncle wasn't "looking too good."
• Candidate asked the interviewer for a ride home after the interview.
• Candidate smelled his armpits on the way to the interview room.
• Candidate said she could not provide a writing sample because all ofher writing had been for the CIA and it was "classified."
• Candidate told the interviewer he was fired for beating up his last boss.
• When applicant was offered food before the interview, he declined saying he didn't want to line his stomach with grease before going out drinking.
• A candidate for an accounting position said she was a "people person" not a "numbers person."
• Candidate flushed the toilet while talking to interviewer during phone interview.
• Candidate took out a hair brush and brushed her hair.
  
  

In addition to the most unusual blunders, employers were also asked about the most common and detrimental mistakes candidates have made during an interview. More than half (51 percent) of hiring managers cited dressing inappropriately as the most detrimental mistake a candidate can make in an interview. Speaking negatively about a current or previous employer came in second at 49 percent and appearing disinterested ranked third at 48 percent. Other mistakes included appearing arrogant (44 percent), not providing specific answers (30 percent) and not asking good questions (29 percent).

"Interviews give employers a window into what it's really like to work with a candidate -- how they react under pressure, what motivates them and how they interact with others," said Rosemary Haefner, vice-president of Human Resources for CareerBuilder.com. "If a candidate is overly negative, plays the blame game, is easily frazzled or doesn't come prepared, it usually sends up a red flag for employers. Be knowledgeable about the company, rehearse answers to potential questions and always maintain a professional manner."

Haefner offers the following tips for successful interviews:

-- Do your homework: Nothing says "I'm not that interested in this job" like someone who has done no research and knows little about a company. It's easier than ever to find information about a company and its activities -- candidates who don't could be perceived as lazy, unmotivated or disinterested.

-- Don't get too personal: The last thing an employer wants to do is to hire someone who brings all their personal drama to the office. Even if the interview seems casual, always keep it professional and avoid sharing unnecessary personal information.

-- Be honest: Interviewers don't expect you to have all the answers. Often they are testing your reaction to "tough questions" to see how you respond under pressure. It's much worse to get caught in a lie than admit you don't know something. If you are unsure of an answer, it's ok to say you don't know but then outline the steps you would take to find out -- this will demonstrate you're a problem solver.

-- Prepare for these common open-ended questions: "Tell me about yourself?" "Why do you want to work here?" "What motivates you?" These questions may seem easy, but because they are so broad, candidates can get tripped up by them if they don't know where to start or when to
end.

-- Don't go negative: No matter how tempting it is to share woes from prior jobs or how much an interviewer is pushing you to do so, it's never a good idea to say negative things about a previous employer. The interviewer will assume you will also be likely to bad mouth their company in the future.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 3,016, hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions); ages 18 and over between November 13 and December 3, 2007. With a pure probability sample of 3,016, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.8 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies. A full methodology is available upon request.

About CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com is the nation's largest online job site with more than 23 million unique visitors and over 1.6 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI - News), Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI - News) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - News), the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,600 partners, including 140 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com's easy job postings, 26 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com.

Media Contact

Tanya Flynn
773-527-5393
Tanya.Flynn@careerbuilder.com

IBM Invests in Future Web 2.0 Developers on Campus

Rochester Institute of Technology Hosts IBM's First on Campus Software Lab for Research & Development

Yahoo Finance

ARMONK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Mar 10, 2008 -- IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) today announced the launch of the first software Innovation and Collaboration Lab on the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) campus in Rochester, N.Y., where future software developers will work on 21st century enterprise technologies -- including open collaboration products -- that harness Web 2.0 and social networking features.

According to research from Robert Half Technology, an IT recruiting firm, CIOs anticipate a 15 percent increase in the need for IT workers with Web 2.0 application development skills in 2008.

As companies increasingly use Web-based technologies to capitalize on new business opportunities, IBM's investment in future developers at RIT is the latest in a series of efforts to address the anticipated IT skills shortage. By collaborating with universities worldwide, IBM's Academic Initiative provides resources on enterprise software development, such as Web 2.0 technologies, as well as a direct pipeline from the campus to company recruitment.

RIT was the first university in the United States to offer a Bachelor of Science degree in software engineering. With over a decade of experience in open standards-based software development, IBM selected RIT as the site for its first on campus software collaboration lab.

"For RIT, the lab provides an excellent opportunity for faculty and students who have expertise in open source to work together on real world software engineering issues," said Jorge Díaz-Herrera, dean of RIT's B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. "As opposed to students who are doing co-ops away from the university, this brings industry and real live work scenarios to the campus. This is a great example of how we can help companies like IBM in research and development. In return, they expose our students to real world issues."

During their six month co-ops, RIT undergraduate students selected by IBM will perform design, development and technical support roles from within IBM's lab on RIT's campus. This lab will draw on students of various majors from three of RIT's colleges: Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, and the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences.

The experience RIT students will gain will go beyond learning about new software trends into developing real code for IBM technologies. These students will benefit from hands on support and expertise from some of the top engineers and researchers from IBM.

IBM's contribution to the development and design lab include dedicated servers and laptops for student co-ops, plus on-site staff and mentors who will be working together with students both in person and virtually to train students on gaining new business skills combined with technology expertise. Students will initially be working on Lotus and collaboration tools, such as Lotus Symphony and Lotus Connections.

Lotus Symphony, IBM's popular suite of no charge desktop productivity software, features an open programming model that goes beyond Microsoft Office by transforming the basic document into a portal to the Web 2.0 world. Lotus Connections is IBM's social software for business that helps customers create professional networks using mashup technology and link information to other social networks such as Yahoo! or LinkedIn.

Joe Pecoraro, a fourth-year RIT Computer Science major involved in web development, would like to spend his co-op learning how to apply enterprise social networking to improve productivity.

"I want to have a personal impact on the IBM technologies I'm working with. The lab is really trying to do just that -- let the students make a difference in future innovation," said Pecoraro. "I hope that working with IBM will give me an opportunity to clarify what I want to do in the future. I anticipate this may turn into a future career or open doors to more opportunities with IBM."

"The Lab will allow the best and brightest at RIT to apply their skills to innovative solutions through collaboration with IBM, and maintain our linkage with the University's top talent," said Robert McDonald, IBM Vice President of Technical Support for Lotus and Collaboration Software. "We hope to leverage students' extensive experience with the new age of collaborative technologies such as social networking, mashups, wikis and blogs."

IBM's university programs brings both open software computing and business skills to meet the needs of the enterprise at over 2400 universities worldwide, reaching over 2 million students. Through this initiative, IBM works closely with schools that support open standards and seek to use open source and IBM technologies for teaching purposes, both directly and virtually via the web. For more information on the IBM Academic Initiative, visit: www.ibm.com/university.

For more information about RIT, please visit: www.rit.edu

For more information on IBM's Web 2.0 and Lotus Software efforts, please visit: www.ibm.com/software/info/web20

*IBM, the IBM logo, and Lotus are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Contact:

Media Contacts:

Jennifer C. Clemente
IBM Media Relations
T: 415-545-3230
E: jennic@us.ibm.com

Kelly Downs
Rochester Institute of Technology
T: 585-475-5094
E: kaduns@rit.edu

Source: IBM

Unilever uses SFIAplus to get more from its IT skills

Rebecca Thomson, ComputerWeekly.com, 19 Dec 2007

Unilever has adopted an IT career framework to help managers and employees understand IT skills and capabilities within the company.

The firm, which owns brands such as Hellman's, Knorr and Domestos, hopes the framework will help it to exploit IT more effectively by making it clear what skills are available.

The intranet-based framework was created using a best practice model from the British Computer Society. The company used SFIAplus, which contains the Skills Framework for the Information Age model, to make it clear what IT roles were needed and the development necessary to fulfil these roles.

Work on the career framework started in 2006, when a cross-regional team identified 10 "role families" from the 78 skills held in SFIAplus. Role profiles were then created for each of the role families and aligned to a future IT function.

The functions were created using browser-based skills manager software from the BCS.

Employees can now access the profiles and compare their own IT skills to those required for either potential or current roles. They can then enrol on to a relevant development programme to reach the required skills level as well as gaining appropriate external accreditation.

Daryl Beck, director of Unilever's IT academy, said, "It is all about enabling Unilever to gain competitive advantage through IT. For the members of the IT team it is about having the right qualifications, being professional, and enabling the business to move forward."

He added that the changes were part of a business change at Unilever. "Over the past two years we have been putting in a new IT model, and this has enabled that new group to understand what was expected of them."

The challenge, he said, was to convince employees of the benefits. "It is not just a sheet of profiles, it is a change programme. People do not like change, and the biggest challenge is convincing people this is what they should be using.

"We have had to spend a huge amount of time this year talking to people about the benefits of the framework and new skills."

Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed

One of the most important changes of the last 30 years is that digital technology has transformed almost everyone into an information worker.

BBC News

By Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft

In almost every job now, people use software and work with information to enable their organisation to operate more effectively.

That's true for everyone from the retail store worker who uses a handheld scanner to track inventory to the chief executive who uses business intelligence software to analyse critical market trends.

So if you look at how progress is made and where competitive advantage is created, there's no doubt that the ability to use software tools effectively is critical to succeeding in today's global knowledge economy.

A solid working knowledge of productivity software and other IT tools has become a basic foundation for success in virtually any career.

Beyond that, however, I don't think you can overemphasise the importance of having a good background in maths and science.

If you look at the most interesting things that have emerged in the last decade - whether it is cool things like portable music devices and video games or more practical things like smart phones and medical technology - they all come from the realm of science and engineering.

The power of software

Today and in the future, many of the jobs with the greatest impact will be related to software, whether it is developing software working for a company like Microsoft or helping other organisations use information technology tools to be successful.

Communication skills and the ability to work well with different types of people are very important too.

A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.

This isn't true at all.

Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.

I also place a high value on having a passion for ongoing learning. When I was pretty young, I picked up the habit of reading lots of books.

It's great to read widely about a broad range of subjects. Of course today, it's far easier to go online and find information about any topic that interests you.

Having that kind of curiosity about the world helps anyone succeed, no matter what kind of work they decide to pursue.

Bill Gates is chairman, chief software architect and one of the founders of Microsoft, the world's largest software company. From July 2008 he will end his day-to-day involvement in the company and focus on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its global health and education work.

Related Article:

Computer knowledge 'undervalued'

Management Leaders Turn Attention to Followers

India remains outsourcing favourite, says survey

Bangalore (ANTARA News) - India remains the favoured technology outsourcing destination, an industry report said Sunday, amid concerns a rising rupee and soaring wages would blunt the country's competitive edge.

A study by industry publication Global Services and investment advisory firm Tholons put the Indian cities of Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune at the top of a list of 15 emerging outsourcing destinations for global companies.

Kolkata at number five and Chandigarh at number nine were the other two Indian locations on the list, which contained three Chinese and two Vietnamese cities as well.

The three hot cities for outsourcing from China were Shanghai at number eight, Beijing at 10 and Shenzhen at 13. Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were put at number six and number 12.

Cebu in the Philippines came in at number four, the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo at seven, Cairo at 11, Buenos Aires at 14 and Sao Paulo at 15, the study's sponsors said in a statement released in Bangalore.

The list is based on criteria such as scale and quality of workforce, financial infrastructure, risk environment and quality of life.

But it does not include established outsourcing locations such as Bangalore, the New Delhi capital region, Manila, Mumbai and Dublin that have had a decade's headstart.

Costs are surging in the prime cities in India, which has earned a reputation as the world's back office, as property values and rentals rise and wages increase at an annual pace of more than 15 percent amid a shortage of skilled employees.

Indian outsourcing firms are also feeling the pinch from an appreciating rupee, which dents dollar-billed earnings, forcing them to cut costs by expanding to less expensive locations.

"With the demand-supply gap widening, newer tier II cities will play a critical role in re-engineered globalisation models," Tholons chairman Avinash Vashistha told AFP.

"Destinations will need to provide greater level of cost effectiveness and operational efficiency."

India's outsourcing companies have thrived by winning work from companies in the US and Europe that sought to tap the country's low costs and large employee pool by handing over jobs ranging from answering customers' calls to risk management and financial analysis.

Pure-play outsourcing firms account for about 10 percent of the 50 billion dollars in revenue logged in the year ended March by the entire information technology industry, which also includes software giants such as Tata Consultancy and Infosys.

IBM Survey: SOA Discussion Moves From IT Staff Roundtables to Executive Agenda

Yahoo Finance, Tuesday July 10, 11:25 am ET

ARMONK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Jul 10, 2007 -- IBM Today announced the results of a survey of clients that concludes the strategic decisions to adopt a service oriented architecture (SOA) are shifting away from the realm of IT staffers to business executives. SOA is a business strategy that helps a company reuse existing technology to more closely align it with business goals, driving efficiencies, cost savings, productivity, and enabling the creation of more modular and global business designs.

The survey was conducted for IBM by the Link Group and consisted of a sampling of clients at the IBM Impact 2007 event, which drew more than 4,200 technical and business leaders. The survey validates a fundamental commitment to SOA as the future of process and application design -- with both significant increases in budgets and the number of SOA projects aimed at new business challenges. At the same time, the survey also found that there is an increasing need for training staff so they possess the unique combination of both business and IT skills required for a business to realize the potential of SOA.

The survey also revealed that 67 percent of the respondents said the key decision makers responsible for moving to an SOA strategy are business leaders including C-level executives and business managers. Additionally, 65 percent of clients said that business leaders are also primarily responsible for selecting an IT partner to help achieve business goals in an SOA.

Read More ....

9 Essential Competencies for Successful C-Level Executives

A list of core competencies the CIO Executive Council uses to evaluate and develop C-level talent.

By Michael Swenson, CIO.com

May 08, 2007 — CIO Executive Council — In 30 years of assessing executive talent, recruitment firm Egon Zehnder International determined that the competencies listed below are core to C-level executive success.

The CIO Executive Council has adapted these competencies for assessment and development programs to aid CIOs and their senior staff in achieving their full potential as strategic enterprise leaders.

1. STRATEGIC ORIENTATION
2. CUSTOMER IMPACT
3. MARKET KNOWLEDGE
4. COMMERCIAL ORIENTATION
5. RESULTS ORIENTATION
6. CHANGE LEADERSHIP
7. COLLABORATION AND INFLUENCE
8. PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
9. TEAM LEADERSHIP

Read More ....

What It Takes for a CIO to Be a CEO

With help from the CIO Executive Council, we tap into research about successful executives. Read on to learn more about the competencies CIOs need to develop to take the corner office, where CIOs fall short—and what CEOs expect from CIOs.

By Carrie Mathews, CIO.com

June 25, 2007 — CIO Executive Council — Do you know your Executive Quotient (EQ)? By figuring your EQ, you can determine how well you’re positioned to be the strategy-oriented CIO that businesses are demanding.

Your EQ can be measured across a set of executive leadership competencies that are essential for any well-rounded C-level executive —including IT leaders who want to move beyond the limits of Function Head and its focus on operations, alignment and order-taking. It’s also a success indicator for CIOs who are taking on formal or informal responsibilities in non-IT aspects of the business or moving up to the CEO role. (To measure yourself, see this link at the CIO Executive Council.)

Your CEO sets the benchmark for performance across all executive competencies. The good news is that the best CIOs stand up well against their bosses and even outperform them in many competencies. The bad news is that they underperform significantly in competencies unique to strategic business leadership. This gap defines the development goals IT leaders need to set in order to advance their individual EQ, their careers and the CIO profession as a whole.

Level 1 - CIOs are doing their basic job

Level 2 - CIOs can describe what the industry is doing and the basic forces of the market, including typical customers and obvious competitors.

Higher Levels - CIOs know their market well enough to spot, anticipate and capitalize on trends. The highest performers make an impact on the marketplace by creating new businesses or new products through their understanding of technology, customer needs and market trends. Unfortunately, Market Knowledge, according to Kelner’s (Egon Zehnder International) six years of accumulated data, is, compared to CEOs’ competencies, a weak spot for CIOs.

Read More ....

How I did it: fixing a broken team – a CIO's tale

Positive feedback can go a long way

Gary Flood, Computing Business 21 Jun 2007

Many years ago, I inherited a team of developers and network specialists. With confused reporting lines, conflicting priorities, muddled production and development targets, the team had ended up being seen as a hopeless pit of binary wasters.

The staff were fundamentally decent and caring – apart from one obviously alcoholic manager who tried to hit me one day. They cared about what they did, but felt that the rest of the company had it in for them.

They worked in an environment that was cramped, messy and depressing. It was clear from the broken desks, chairs, cables and run-down ceilings that IT had to suffer for its penance.

I talked to all the team and especially the more visionary team leaders. They were full of ideas on how to improve their productivity and how they wanted to improve the software and infrastructure.

The problem was nobody had asked them before.

Many were classic geeky oddballs – two were brilliant and disruptive and fought almost physically with one another – the simple answer would have been to sack them.

However, they were working on an important project – together. I placed them in separate areas of the building and they got on like best friends, using instant messenger and meeting only when I could referee.

Result: one great postscript and pagination project that is still in use today, 12 years later.

The IT team had to know that I believed in them and was a leader who would perish with them – our success was welded together – and it worked. We even received a call from Microsoft and duly trotted to Redmond for bagels and a chat – we thought they would invest, they thought we had re-written Microsoft SQL 2.5.

Traditionally, when times are bad, as managers and in life we revert to parent-child-type dialogues, such as: ‘Your behaviour is unacceptable, your homework is poor and you will fail your exams.’ This does not even work with my kids, never mind with adults.

So, do not beat up your employees. Your team are adults. Listen to their issues, let them understand your goals and keep reminding them they are professionals. Then they will live up to that name and not the derogatory ones they are used to.

Paul Broome is referring to a previous engagement at an unnamed company. He is now chief technology officer at 192.com.

UGM starts CIO postgraduate program

The Jakarta Post

Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta started its Chief Information Officer postgraduate program this year with an inaugural lecture on June 4.

The program offers classes and training to improve the competency of people working in the communications and information field.

This program is designed by UGM's information technology postgraduate program (MTI). Each student will follow classes for 16 months focusing on strategy and management of information technology.

The school perceives communication and information technology as the application of technology with a sociocultural approach. Consequently, students will also take nontechnical subjects such as law, economics and management.

The CIO As Liaison And Guide

As the pressure ratchets up for IT to become business focused, innovative and strategic, Deloitte Consulting maps out the obstacles and offers guidance for CIOs seeking to become the "CEO of IT."

By Eugene Lukac, Specialist Leader, and Peter McBrearty, Senior Manager, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Optimize, June 2007

Businessinnovation

Congratulations! You've made it to the post of CIO. Unfortunately, the skills that propelled you up the IT ladder won't necessarily help you to stay in the position for long. If you're like most CIOs, you advanced by delivering on-time and on-budget technology projects. Therefore, it might be reasonable to assume that if you can continue delivering successful projects, you will live happily ever after, right? Wrong. If that's your attitude, you're heading for a fall — and given average CIO tenure, probably within two to three years, maximum.

That's right, technical skills along with some people savvy won't take you far enough. Today's CIO must be " first and foremost " a business executive, just like all senior executives. That means being motivated by the same things as other business leaders, using the same language they do and above all, effectively controlling costs. Indeed, managing cost (both within IT and the company at large) is typically "table stakes" for a CIO. If you don't figure out how to be successful at this, you likely won't be around long enough to achieve anything else.

Along with managing costs, successful CIOs today need to also focus on deploying technology to support the company in achieving its goals, rather than pondering the relative "elegance" of technology alternatives. The CIO must be able to talk about business solutions, competitive advantage, innovations, and customers " all of the things that drive the other business executives. Technology is primarily an enabler; business strategy and metrics are paramount.

The CIO with staying power views himself or herself as the CEO of the IT business within the overall company. Here, the CIO's language should reflect a shift to a CEO's priorities to the point where he or she starts talking about the IT organization's products and services, its internal market and its shareholders. It's not enough anymore to be a savvy technologist who took over the top job in IT: the CIO must become a business leader.

A contemporary CIO should help the company establish a clear "line of sight" between technology and business issues. The CIO must also educate business executives as to how technology can drive business results. CIOs should strive to help their internal customers understand technology and mine its potential to better serve not just their own customers but also their customers' customers.

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Google hiring in Southeast Asia

By Eileen Yu, ZDNet Asia

Thursday , May 03 2007 05:52 PM

SINGAPORE--Google officially opened Thursday its new office in the country, which executives said will serve as a hub for its advertisers and partners in the Southeast Asian region, including Australia and New Zealand.

Richard Kimber, Google's regional managing director for India and Southeast Asia, added that the search giant plans to form an engineering center here and is currently looking to hire a site director to lead the development team.

Australia-based Kimber, however, declined to reveal exactly how large the engineering team will be, mooting possibilities that it could be as small as 10 or as large as 100, depending on the company's growth plans.

But he did indicate that the mobile platform will likely be "a big focus" for the research and development team here, given the high mobile penetration rate in the Asia-Pacific region.

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10 career tips for Asia's IT pros

Finding that dream job--and keeping it--is not rocket science. You just need a combination of the right skills, good work ethics, a positive attitude, and creative thinking.

By Isabelle Chan, ZDNet Asia

Friday , April 13 2007 09:45 AM

Whether it is a technical or business role, the basic rules apply: behave professionally, be confident, stand out from the crowd, and always push the creative envelope in whatever you do.

Here's a list of 10 quick career tips, ranging from how to write an effective resume to what IT professionals in Asia can do to stay employable throughout their careers.

1. Get noticed

Make sure that your resume or curriculm vitae (CV) stands out.

Ashran Dato Ghazi, CEO of Malaysia-based Asiastream Group, said: "[Recruiters] look at tones of CVs daily and you need something to catch their attention. Show your character via your CV."

Fresh graduates, he suggested, should make full use of their time in university to build up their portfolios. "Use the university as a place for exploration and share those explorations in your CVs," said Ghazi, who is also the president of the New Entrepreneur Forum in Malaysia. "Employers want to see something different in the CV."

Those who have working experience should do more than state their job scope. "Highlight your achievements in your CV, too, said Yeo Gek Cheng, director of Hudson's IT&T (IT and telecommunications) practice in Asia.

"A 65:35 split between achievements and scope is a good rule of thumb," Yeo added. "Employers tend to single out candidates who fulfill the basic essential hard skills requirements before evaluating their fit into the organization, which is the stage where soft skills are looked into. (Read Hudson's career support resources for more information.)

One way to differentiate yourself is to attain professional certification. Employers are showing more preference for candidates with recognized certifications such as Cisco's CCIE or Sun Microsystems' Certified Java programmers, said Maneck Mohan, founder of Recruit.net.

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Asia: Hotbed for IT jobs

ZDnet India

According to human resources agency Hudson, the sentiment is generally good for IT professionals in this region.

Yeo Gek Cheng, director of IT and telecoms (IT&T) at Hudson Singapore, said there are more jobs for candidates in Singapore as demand far exceeds supply.

Similarly in Hong Kong, the IT job market is short of candidates--almost like how it was in 2000 during the dotcom days, according to Ellis Seder, IT&T manager at Hudson Hong Kong. "The banking industry, in particular, is experiencing a hiring frenzy for candidates with technology skills," he said.

Indeed, the HR experts' views dovetailed with findings from ZDNet Asia's inaugural IT Salary Survey, which provides an overview of salary data for several IT positions, including IT management, project development and systems development. It also highlights the most popular technical skills and professional certifications.

The survey was conducted on the Internet between Aug. 25 and Nov. 6, 2006, and drew 5,090 respondents from key industry sectors such as government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance. The study covered Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Among the key findings: IT professionals command the highest pay in Hong Kong, with an overall average annual salary of HK$404,144 (US$51,964), followed by Singapore at S$64,943 (US$41,601). Surprisingly, Thailand is in third place with an average of THB 994,203 (US$27,044).

Industry observers say the high salaries are hardly surprising, thanks to a shrinking IT workforce and expanding IT teams.

Rohit Chattree, director at HR consultancy Adecco, noted: "We are getting a lot more requests from clients to look for more candidates, as they expand their IT teams. We're also speaking to a lot of candidates who get offers regularly."

Particularly in Singapore, Chattree said, the local IT talent pool has dried up. Employers are even open to talking to IT professionals looking for jobs while they are in Singapore on tourist visits.

Noting trends across the region, Chattree said: "There is strong interest from different industries to hire IT professionals".

Among the industries surveyed, respondents from the legal and finance sector command the highest average annual salaries in four out of the seven countries: Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

Getting CIO and CEO to see eye to eye

By George Colony, Tue Feb 27 2007, CNET

Throughout my career, I have watched the "odd couple" of the chief information officer and the chief executive officer try to live together.

In the 1980s and for most of the '90s, their paths rarely crossed--the CEO didn't think much about technology, and the CIO rarely interacted with executives beyond his boss--the chief financial officer. With the exception of some techie leaders like Ned Johnson at Fidelity, Fred Smith at FedEx or David Glass at Wal-Mart, chief executives perceived IT/BT (I now refer to information technology as business technology, or BT) as an important underpinning of company operations, but not as a critical strategic tool.

Added to this general ambivalence were the high-profile cases of chief executives having their reputations and budgets scorched by IT/BT projects gone awry: perpetual IRS systems overhauls, Citibank's futile effort to create a "single customer view" in the mid-'80s, and SAP R/3 "kitchen sink" leaps of faith in the early-'90s come to mind.

Then the dot-com collective insanity hit and CEO panic set in (Amazoning, etc., etc.). In those days, I ran a tech session at the Harvard Business School for CEOs. To prepare for the session, I surveyed chief executives at 25 large companies. When I asked them how much time they spent on technology issues, the response was "25 percent." They were lying: CEOs--even the techies--could not afford to devote a quarter of their time to systems.

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CIO focus shifts from tech support to corporate strategy

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 25, 2007

By PUI-WING TAM, The Wall Street Journal

As the longtime chief information officer for Northrop Grumman Corp., Tom Shelman’s duties mainly consisted of managing the defense contractor’s vast network of computer systems. So he was shocked when the company suddenly changed his job description several years ago.

Shelman was asked to be more “strategic” and “transformational.” He was told he would be expected to meet with customers, use technology in new ways and help win new business — in short, to help the Los Angeles-based company grow.

“I had to sit down and do some soul-searching,” says Shelman, 48. “It was a significant change; it sounded exciting, but it also scared the hell out of me.”

Shelman, who has been Northrop’s CIO for the last decade, ultimately decided to stay in the job. Since then, a wireless network that Shelman started in late 2004 at one of Northrop’s shipyards in Pascagoula, Miss., has blossomed into a new source of revenue. Last September, New York City awarded a $500-million municipal contract to Northrop for a citywide wireless network for its police and fire departments, as well as other city agencies.

Other CIOs are going through similar transformations. The computing systems they manage have long been seen as an essential resource but also an operating cost to be controlled. Now, technology is increasingly being recognized as a vital tool in corporate strategy — and CIOs are helping to wield it. Web sites, for example, have evolved at many companies from the equivalent of corporate brochures to huge direct-sales channels that must be skillfully designed and tightly managed.

According to recent CIO polls from research firm Gartner Inc., 50 percent of CIOs surveyed said they now have duties outside of core technology, such as helping to craft corporate strategy. That is up from about 20 percent three years ago, says Mark McDonald, a Gartner analyst.

“Companies are requiring CIOs to be more thoughtful about strategy,” says Reynold Lewke, a partner in the Palo Alto, Calif., office of recruiting firm Egon Zehnder International who leads the firm’s CIO practice. “Many CIOs have become business partners.”

In recognition of this job shift, more CIOs are now reporting to top executives such as chief executives, chief financial officers and chief operating officers than to other parts of an organization. Last year, 74 percent of CIOs surveyed reported to a CEO, chief financial officer or operating chief, up from 69 percent in 2003, according to Gartner.

While CIOs now pull in an average total annual compensation of $185,240, up from $180,000 in 2004, according to CIO Magazine, some make far more. Randy Mott, who was hired from Dell Inc. to become Hewlett-Packard Co.’s CIO in mid-2005, is paid a base salary of $690,000 a year and obtained a hefty package of stock options and restricted stock, according to H-P’s public filings. Mott also got a $2.2-million signing bonus and will pocket at least another $5 million under a long-term-performance bonus plan.

Mott arrived when the role of technology chief became more important at the Palo Alto computer and printer maker. Immediately before Mott, the H-P CIO job wasn’t a stand-alone position and had been melded with the job of head of global operations.

That changed when Mark Hurd arrived as chief executive in early 2005 and decided the company needed to overhaul its tech systems to facilitate new sales and growth.

Now, Mott is in charge of whittling H-P’s 85 data centers world-wide down to just six in three years. By improving the efficiency of the internal systems, H-P hopes to free up Mott’s team to spend less time on tech support and more on helping H-P in other ways.

For example, Mott often meets with customers — sometimes 50 at a time — to describe his own experience in trying to deploy H-P technology efficiently, suggesting how the potential buyers also could use the company’s products to make large technology transitions quickly.

“It’s a case study in progress,” says Mott, 50. “What I’ve shown customers has helped them move forward and escalate the projects they’re thinking about taking on.”