What To Look For in A CIO

Mike Siscos
Practical IT Manager GOLD Series
What To Look For

in a CIO
get more value from your IT investment
helping IT managers of the world

achieve more success
Copyright MDE Enterprises, Inc.

www.itmanagerinstitute.com
-2-
Practical IT Manager GOLD Series
What To Look For in a CIO

get more value from your IT investment
2nd edition

-3-
Introduction
Hello and welcome to the Practical IT Manager GOLD Series. I'm
Mike Sisco, President of MDE Enterprises, Inc. and a career IT
manager and CIO of more than 20 years.
Since 2000, I have devoted my life to, "helping IT managers of the
world achieve more success". My practical processes and tools are
used by thousands of IT managers in every part of the world.
Mike Sisco, ITBMC
The challenge of managing technology resources has never been

more demanding than it is now. Change occurs more rapidly and
technology resources are in more demand than ever before.
People and companies respond to strong leadership. Effective leadership skills give a
technology manager an edge in creating and maintaining a stable business
environment. This leads to more success and an IT organization that's valued and
appreciated by the business managers of your company.
The material contained in the entire Practical IT Manager GOLD Series of books has
been developed from my experience in managing technical organizations of all sizes for
more than 20 years. The examples are real life experiences of things I know to work, or
hard lessons learned from things that did not work. I developed every process and tool
you will learn about to help me manage IT organizations during my career. They worked
for me and will for you as well.
Two tools I use to enhance the material or to clarify a point are:
Sidebar: a comment or clarification to help make a point
Personal Note: a personal experience or war story to reinforce a point.
You will find a bit of humor to make the reading more enjoyable and to emphasize
certain points. Because of my very dry sense of humor, you may have to look for the
humor, , , sorry about that. I also hope you like the images I pop in at times to make the
reading more interesting.

-4-
The Practical IT Manager GOLD Series includes the following titles:

IT Management-101: fundamentals to achieve more
IT Assessment: the key to IT success
IT Strategy: align your IT vision for business value
IT Organization: right-size your organization for success
IT Project Management: a practical approach
IT Staff Motivation and Development: build a world class team
IT Asset Management: tracking technology assets
IT Budgeting: operational and capital budgeting made easy
IT Due Diligence: merger & acquisition discovery process
IT Assimilation: consolidating redundant technologies
What to Look For in a CIO: get more value from your IT investment
, , , plus more titles to come
To view the Table of Contents for each publication or to discover other IT manager
products and services we offer , go to www.itmanagerinstitute.com for more information.
Interested in our IT Manager Institute and IT Business
Manager Certification (ITBMC) program? It is one of the
most successful IT manager training programs in the
industry and available in both classroom and self study
formats. Go to www.itmanagerinstitute.com for details.
Managing IT organizations at a high level is serious
business, but having fun along the way is also important. I
hope you find the material helpful in your quest and
welcome your feedback. You may contact me at
mike@mde.net .
Best regards and success,
Mike Sisco, ITBMC
MDE Enterprises, Inc.

Additional resources from Mike Sisco
ITLever Blog www.itlever.com
Free tips and tools, , , updated frequently
IT Manager Institute www.itmanagerinstitute.com

Both classroom and self study versions are available
20 Minute IT Manager www.20minuteitmanager.com
Complete library of over 160 e-Learning sessions
-5-
What To Look For in a CIO

Table of Contents
Introduction .
I. First Identify Company Goals and Objectives .
A. Quantify business objectives .
B. Importance of business planning ..
C. Where is the company today?
II. How Important is Technology in Your Company? .
A. Strategic
B. Operationally critical .
C. Supportive .
III. CIO or Technical Manager? ..
A. Every company does not need a CIO ..
B. What are the differences? ...
C. All CIOs are not equal .
IV. Successful CIO Traits .
A. Assessment .
B. Strategy
C. Planning
D. Organization
...
E. Implementation ...
F. Leadership ...
G. Communication
V. Defining Your Ideal CIO .
VI. What Should You Pay? .
VII. Where to Look
VIII. The Interview .
IX. The Offer .
X. Ready, Set, GO! ..
XI. Summary .
4
7
10
17
20
21
22
23
24
26
26
29
31
33
34
44
48
49
50
51
53
54
57
59
60
62
63
65
APPENDIX:
A. My Resume 66
B. Sample CIO Job Description .. 69
C. Blank Technology Leader Skills/Experience Matrix 74

-6-
I. First Identify Company Goals and Objectives

Its a simple concept. How can you determine your need in a CIO unless you have first
determined what you want to accomplish as a company?
You probably thought we were going to jump right into talking about CIO
attributes and capabilities. Dont worry, we will get to that soon enough.
You wouldnt just go buy a new manufacturing machine, truck, computer,
or other resource without first defining what it is you need it for, , , and
whether you need it at all, would you? Of course not.
Well, a CIO or any other employee in your company is an asset just like a piece of
equipment. Certainly there are many other things to consider when hiring someone, but
I think you get the point. A CIO is a significant asset in your company because this
position can impact every department and individual in your company.
A key to a successful Information Technology (IT) organization is for IT to be in sync
with your companys business needs. For this to happen, you need an IT leader with the
right skills and experience who can identify these business needs and issues and then
focus the IT organization appropriately to support them.
Putting the appropriate level of manager in place for your companys immediate and
future needs requires an understanding of where youre taking the company, what has
to take place to get there, and where youre starting from. Knowing these issues will
help define how big the mountain is that youre about to ask someone to climb.
Such an evaluation will also tell you whether you need someone who can scale a Mount
Everest versus a tall hill. Getting the right fit is important for your company as well as
the CIO you bring in for long term success.
Dont just pass over this. Put serious thought into what your company wants to
accomplish. Later on you will see that defining your business objectives is the most
important aspect in determining the ideal CIO candidate.

-7-
Let me ask you a few questions:

Do you know what your IT organization is doing and why?
Do you know how much money you spend in IT and why?
Do you understand your CIO when he makes a recommendation to do something?
Do you enjoy talking about technology?
If your answer to one of the first three questions is NO, there is a high likelihood there
is a gap between your IT organization and your business. Are you aware many studies
suggest an IT-Business Disconnect occurs in over 50% of all companies in the world?
If this disconnect exists in your company, it is costing you big time in lost productivity
and flushing money down the drain due to the IT organization focusing on the wrong
issues. Most CEOs do not know how to identify whether an IT-Business Disconnect
exists or how to fix it.
In fact, its not the CEOs job to fix an IT-Business Disconnect. The IT organization has
to determine if it exists and resolve it if it does exist. The problem is that when a
disconnect occurs in a company, , , the CIO or IT manager usually is not aware of it. If
he were, he would do something about it, , , assuming he knows what to do.

-8-
It probably wont surprise you when I say, IT people are different!

Of course they are, , , we all know this., you are probably saying to yourself.
Well, you might be surprised when I tell you that most IT people do not believe
themselves to be different, , , they see it as they just understand technology better.
Im an IT guy and I can tell you with full confidence that IT people really are different. IT
employees have a very consistent personality and work behavior, , , there is actually a
personality type thats drawn to technology. Here is why IT people are different.
IT managers come from technical backgrounds in 99% of the cases, , , not from
business operation backgrounds. As a result, they understand technology, not business.
Your normal company employees work in the business and not in technology.
IT people speak a different language, , , using technical
acronyms all the time and they talk about the technology, , , not
the business. Quite often, business people do not understand
what an IT employee is saying, , , but they dont want to admit it.
Technical managers talk about what, , , business managers
want to know why.
IT people tend to discuss an issue by talking about the
technology features, not about the business benefit which is what
business people need to hear. This language difference creates
a significant communication gap.
Business managers understand revenue, cost, profitability,
productivity, risk, and opportunity. IT people dont speak in these
terms, , , they talk about routers and switches, WAN and LAN,
cloud computing, etc. This is great information you might say, , ,
but who wants to understand all this technical stuff?
Have you ever been in a meeting with an IT manager and you cant understand
anything he says? Not only that, he wants to give you so much detail you cant even
begin to digest all the information.
I know, , , I know, , , its a big problem. Ive been on the delivery side providing my CEO
with a technical explanation and way too much detail. The confusion I saw in his face
was not that he needed more information like I thought he did, , , I was already giving
him too much information. He wasnt understanding my message.
Is this my CEOs problem or mine?
-9-
You bet, , , it is completely and totally my problem. An IT manager has to be able to

adjust his presentation so an executive can understand. Otherwise senior management
is never going to understand ITs recommendations and explanation of things.
As a CEO you are not expected to know how to apply technology to achieve company
objectives, , , thats your CIOs job. But it does make sense to expect a CEO to be able
to define the companys business objectives, even if its at 50,000 feet.
Its also appropriate to expect a CEO to be able to find a capable CIO to manage the
companys technology resources. This book will help you in this regard.
First, lets talk about identifying the companys objectives. This is a key part of defining
what it is you need in a CIO. When you know what you want to accomplish, it sets the
stage for the skills needed in your senior IT leader.
To discuss this part, Ill focus on three main points:
A. Quantify business objectives
B. Importance of business planning
When we finish this chapter, you should be better
prepared to define your company goals and objectives.
A. Quantify business objectives
As you reflect on what it is you want to accomplish as a company, you need to write it
down if you havent already done so. Not only will this exercise help you in defining
requirements in an ideal candidate, it will become a great tool to assist you in interviews
and later on in introducing your objectives to a new CIO.
A CEO being able to explain his companys business objectives and plans to a CIO is
huge, , , it is the most important thing for the CIO to be aware of because it sets the
stage for all decisions he will make as the head of IT.
Every decision, , , every act, , , every expenditure the CIO makes and recommends
should be done in a way to support the companys ultimate mission and the goals and
objectives to achieve this mission.
Sidebar: I make an assumption that you may already have a CIO or technical manager
in place but feel you have a need to assess your current IT situation.
This information is valuable for both a senior executive and a CIO to insure he/she
starts out on the right path. Even if you already have a CIO in place, a reassessment
periodically and a review of the mission can help insure your IT organization stays in
sync with the business side of the company.
- 10 -
One of the big concerns of CEOs and CIOs every year is an issue mentioned earlier
called the ITBusiness Disconnect. It occurs in over 50% of all companies worldwide
according to most studies and happens when IT works on things that are different than
what the company needs from them. The bottom line is that IT is out of sync with the
business managers of the company.
I know it to be an issue because Ive seen it in dozens of company acquisitions and

hear about it all the time in discussions with IT managers around the world. Ill have a
discussion with a manager, and its clear in the discussion that IT is probably focused
on the wrong things for their company.
Usually, what I will hear is IT focusing on technology, , , not the business.
You cannot afford for this to happen. When it does, all too often the IT manager doesnt
realize it. Senior management may feel like something is not quite right but they cant
put their finger on it or explain it to their IT manager.
For a good consultant, it only takes a few hours to determine if a disconnect exists in a
company. If it does, your company is losing tremendous amounts of productivity and
wasting money when IT works on the wrong things.
Let me emphasize a point here. Your IT manager does not work on the wrong things on
purpose. Most senior IT managers are very conscientious, smart, and want to do a good
job, , , actually, they want to do a GREAT job!
The problem is that they understand technology and not the business. One
of the most difficult challenges an IT manager has is in transitioning from
technical expert to business manager. Without help, , , many dont make it
only because they arent aware of what needs to be done, , , not for lack of
trying or desire to do a good job.
- 11 -
Maybe your company doesnt have a formal 5-year strategic plan, , , but its no excuse
for a CIO to work on the wrong things for your company. It starts by finding out what the
company objectives and plans are, , , business plans, not technical plans.
We dont need a formal strategy to learn the key objectives of a company.
When I conduct an IT assessment, one of my very first interviews is with the CEO and
CFO. Often, they do not have a formal company strategy, , , but when asked, What are
your plans for the company over the next 3-5 years?, , , they can discuss this quite
well. If they say they expect to grow by 15-20% a year and you ask them how they will
do this, , , they will be able to tell you.
Company executives can talk all day about business and what they envision for
their company in the future.
Guess what, , , when they do, they are telling you their key objectives by
answering some general questions as you try to understand their business and
what they plan for their company. Their discussions have technical support
implications, , , the CIO just has to pick up on them.
When a good CIO understands the companys objectives, he digs deeper to understand
the business needs and issues that exist within the company. Once he has a grasp of
these issues and learns about what the existing IT organization can do, he develops an
appropriate IT strategy to support the companys need.
Far too many IT managers focus on the technology first, , , only because they think its
the right thing to do.
This can easily cause a disconnect between business and IT when the IT organization
ends up working on things that do not really do much for the business.
What this says is that the CEO must define the companys key business objectives and
share it with his CIO, , , and all department managers of the company for that matter.
This information is vital for every department managers planning and focus.

- 12 -
When quantifying business objectives, begin global and work your way down to the
appropriate level for your situation.
Company major objective Define the major objectives you want the company to
achieve. For example:
- Increase revenue to $500 million and take the company public in 3 years
- Increase earnings from 10% to 15% in 3 years
- Become the largest and premier service offering in our industry within 3 years
As you can see, this is a very broad target but it
defines what you believe the ultimate success of
the company should be in a defined timeframe.
This vision of where you want to be at a given
date should drive the decisions of each of your
senior managers, especially your CIO.
OK, if this is our major set of goals, , , how do we get there?
Company strategic initiatives Identify the key things that must be accomplished
to achieve your major objectives. For example, if you are a $100 million revenue
company today and your major objective is to be $500 million in 3 years, you either
have to acquire other companies or increase sales aggressively to achieve your goal.
Both of these options for growth certainly have technology implications even if it is just
the ability to have an infrastructure able to support a company five times its current size.
Do you see what Im getting to? These high level explanations of what you want your
company to be and key strategies you think will get you there start defining real work
the CIO must plan for.
This one piece, , , grow the business from $100 million to $500 million in 3 years gives
your CIO lots to think about, such as:
- IT staff required to support a business five times our current size
- Building space we will have to grow into and set up for systems connectivity
- Software license requirements
- New business applications
- Infrastructure capacity and scalability needs
- Acquisitions of other companies WOW!! , , , lots to consider here
Your CIO needs to learn more about how you plan to achieve this major goal. Most
CEOs and CFOs will be able to tell you how they believe the company can accomplish
their major objectives of growing from $100 million to $500 million.
- 13 -
Examples of strategies to increase revenue to $500 million within 3 years might be:
- Acquire 4 companies totaling $300 million in revenue
- Increase sales in current product lines by 20% each over the next 3 years
- Add a new product line that generates $20 million in sales by Year-3
By identifying the major steps required to achieve the ultimate goal, you have given an
astute CIO vital information he needs to begin developing a strategy that is consistent
with your company direction. These specific targets spell out quite a lot of what the CIO
must do to support the companys growth.
If you can be a bit more precise, it helps. The more specific you can be in defining
challenges and business initiatives that help you achieve your major objective the
better. Try to break your strategic initiatives into tactical initiatives.
Company tactical initiatives The need to do some things sooner than later is often
the case in a company. Take the time to truly assess immediate business needs of the
company. These issues may be business regulatory issues, cash flow challenges, or
other issues of importance that must be dealt with quickly.
When a good CIO hears your business issues, he translates them into,
What must we do in IT to support this issue?

He hears business issue but immediately starts thinking IT support.
Just because you identify immediate focus needed in certain areas is not going to cause
a credible CIO to lose sight of the major objective. In fact, knowing where the company
wants to be in 3 years has a significant bearing on how the CIO goes about addressing
the immediate needs you identify.

- 14 -
Personal Note: After joining a small company as their new CIO, my immediate task
was to improve the focus and morale of an IT organization of about 30 people and to
position IT to support our companys planned growth.
The IT organization was split into two parts located in two cities, , , Atlanta, GA and
Richmond, VA, , , about 500 miles apart.
The 22 people located in Richmond had the majority of the technology experience and
client relationships of our business. Our clients consisted of external companies and
internal employees who provided physician billing services using software we
developed and supported.
Because the CEO explained to me the company was going to grow significantly through
acquisitions of other companies I made the decision to merge the two IT organizations
into one as I went about improving the client service support culture.
I decided to move the Richmond office to Atlanta where our headquarters was located.
The easier path would have been to consolidate to Richmond where most of the people
were, but knowing the extent of our planned growth I consolidated to Atlanta, , , a much
larger city and sufficient in size to find and hire several hundred IT people as we grew.
The Richmond market for IT people could not support the additional staff we would
eventually need.
I could have fixed the service issues in either city, but knowing the companys growth
plans I chose the path that helped the company the most in the long run.
The easier path is not always the right or best path to take.
- 15 -
Tactical initiatives can be anything from something that has been a pervasive problem
for some time to simply a key project you believe is important for the business.
Our example might include tactical projects like the following:
- Improve the support of an existing technology.
- Position the IT organization to assimilate a new acquisition planned soon.
- Update the infrastructure to be more scalable and position for growth.
- Automate a component of our business to improve productivity.
- Automate the billing process to eliminate paper and improve cash flow.
- Modify software to comply with a government regulatory change.
Tactical project initiatives are hot items you believe the IT
organization needs to focus on. If you arent sure whether you
should direct your CIO at such a low level, its perfectly fine to
provide him with insight and suggest he evaluate the situation and
develop a plan of action on his own.
In my experience, most senior executives are more comfortable
discussing the business issues at a high level and letting their CIO
develop a plan of attack on what the IT organization needs to do to address these
issues. Executives typically do not want to wade into the technical weeds.
In a new CIO position with a company, I always conduct a quick IT assessment to
understand the business needs and issues and also the capability and capacity of the IT
organization. A couple of times, Ive asked my manager if he wants to participate in the
assessment. The answer is always, No. Senior executives dont want to be involved
with technology at this level, , , they have hired you to take care of technology.
A strong CIO will be comfortable with either a high level of involvement
from senior management or a lower level where management is more
direct in what they want. Over time a strong CIO will expect to lead and
drive direction rather than to just take orders and implement.
We will discuss this more in the CIO or Technical Manager section.

- 16 -
B. Importance of business planning

Yogi Berra was a great baseball player for the New York Yankees
in the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. He was well known for
his bizarre statements to the press we call Yogiisms.
Have you ever heard this Yogi quote?
Youve got to be careful if you dont know where youre
going cause you might not get there!
You have identified your major objective (the target) so you know
where you want to go. Great full speed ahead!!!!
Not so fast, you say.
Yogi had another saying that is important to ponder here, When you come to a fork
in the road, take it.. Its all fine to know where you want to go but if you dont have a
road map its still a big challenge to get there. Business planning is the road map.
Getting your senior managers on the same page is facilitated by having a business
plan that all participate in and understand. Im not suggesting you have to hold a 5-day
meeting with the management team to develop a 100-page business plan.
What I do suggest is that key objectives and milestones that lead to your companys
major objective need to be defined and shared with the management team.
If you were a developer of a new building or a shopping mall, you certainly would not
start working on the project without a blueprint to know what the end result needs to
look like.

- 17 -
Personal Note: In one company I worked for, our underlying theme was to improve
earnings per share. It started with the CEO and flowed throughout the company.
You heard this theme in every part of the company as you
met with department managers. It was a positive
reinforcement of improving productivity, increasing revenues
faster than the expenses, leveraging acquisitions, and cutting
out waste.
We were very serious about it and our stock price reflected it.
The business planning that came out of this theme
established the road map by which we would accomplish our
major objective of improving earnings per share. Many
tactical and strategic initiatives were identified and launched
as you might expect.
For example, each of the internal support departments went
about identifying how to reduce their expense as a per cent of revenue while improving
department services.
Sales focused on how to boost sales of our more profitable product lines.
Operations focused on efficiency and ways to improve productivity.
The CEO focused on buying companies that helped improve earnings per share.
All of us took a hard look at waste in areas where expenses could be reduced without
decreasing quality or levels of service.
These business plans led to an increase of more than 3% in EBITDA (earnings before
interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) in 12 months, , , tremendous improvement.
The key point is that each department manager developed a business plan that
supported the companys major objectives, , , it all comes back to defining where you
want to take your company.

- 18 -
Lets take one example of what I mean by business planning. Lets say it is mid-March
and a strategic objective for your company is to eliminate $20 million in expense by the
end of the calendar year.
One approach would be to pull your senior managers together and give each of them a
quota, , , their fair share of the targeted expense cut. Its easy, simple, and takes only
20 minutes of your time to deliver the message if you deem everyones share is to cut
10% of budgeted expense between now and the end of the year.
Another approach is to empower your managers by facilitating a business planning
meeting where you discuss the need to cut $20 million by year-end and why its so
important. Then you empower the team to identify specific cost saving opportunities and
to develop the plans (road map) to achieve this key objective.
As CEO you could simply tell them to make it happen. However, empowering them and
getting them fully involved increases the odds of achieving success, , , significantly.
By the way, if you need $20 million in cost
savings, you better target $25 million. Some
things just wont happen as planned.
The point to all of this is to focus, refocus,
and focus again. When you have all your
managers reinforcing your objectives with
one another, big things are possible. It is
well worth the effort and has a much better
outcome than simply giving an order.
Once you have your business plan road
maps in place and your teams executing
them youre on your way. Inspect to validate
critical elements are on course and to determine alternative actions as necessary.
Communicate progress and reward achievements.
OK, so much for emphasizing business planning.
There is one more key element you need to be aware of as you define your companys
key objectives.
Do you know where your company is today?
If you havent taken some time to consider the state of your company today, then do it
now. It may change the thoughts you have about what you believe your strategic
initiatives need to be.
- 19 -

Take time to do a brief state of the business evaluation. Be sure to identify what you
and other senior managers see as your needs, challenges, critical initiatives, etc.
You can approach this step in a couple of ways depending upon the size and makeup of
your company. Assess the situation with your senior department managers or wait until
you have your CIO on board.
Remember, this and the other exercises are intended to help quantify what the issues
are and what the current management team believes to be the key priorities of your
company. This information will benefit your CIO so he can focus on the most important
issues right out of the gate.
If your company is in the beginnings of a turnaround situation, the immediate issues are
more tactical in nature and need quick attention, , ,there may be a few fires burning. If
the company is in a more mature state, the CIOs focus can be a bit more strategic.
When evaluating the state of the company, describe your perspective of the status in
the following areas and any additional area you think might be helpful:
- IT support
- IT ability to deliver business value
- IT focus on the true priorities of the business
- IT reliability in supporting our business
- Strengths and weaknesses of the IT support team
- Uptime (system availability)
- Technology gaps
- IT track record in completing projects successfully
- User perspective of the IT department
- Strength and maturity of the current IT staff
- Strength and maturity of other department managers
- Keys to IT success
Sidebar: This part of assessing the state of your company was intentionally placed
after you defined the major objective and strategic objectives of the company. Often, I
find that senior management teams focus so much on where they want to be that they
lose sight of identifying where they are. By going through the exercises in this
sequence, you will quickly determine if thats the case in your situation.
The more you can quantify the goals, objectives, and the status of where you are, the
more effective a solid CIO can perform for you.

- 20 -
II. How Important Is Technology in Your

Company?
Extremely important!, you say. Well, thats probably true or you wouldnt be reading
this material. However, we need to break it down a bit and try to be a little more specific.
The reason it has a major bearing on what you need in your CIO.
In order to get a great match, you need to know the relevant importance technology
plays in your business. Lets look at some examples.
In the air traffic control business or the Amazon.com business, technology stability is
critical. They have to have 7 days a week, 24 hours a day uptime (24 X 7) or they have
major problems, even life threatening implications in the case of air traffic control.
In a small physician clinic that depends on technology primarily for billing and accounts
receivable, a certain amount of downtime is acceptable, , , not desirable mind you, , ,
but acceptable to the point the company does not spend money to create systems and
network redundancy to guarantee 24 X 7 uptime.
Even a large hospital dependent upon all kinds of technology will often choose to take a
risk rather than pay for redundancy to guarantee 24 X 7 uptime of many of their hospital
technologies.
There are many considerations when you start thinking about, How important is
technology in meeting company objectives?
As we discuss these, it will bring you closer and closer to being able to define your ideal
CIO candidate.
There are essentially three categories of technical need a company has when
understanding the role the IT organization needs to fulfill:
A. Strategic
B. Operationally critical
C. Supportive
There are probably many variations to these categories but
when we discuss these three I think you will get my point.

- 21 -
A. Strategic
Strategic technology needs are usually required for companies that have significant
growth plans or are expecting to transform (sometimes called reengineer) themselves to
adapt to changing market conditions or other dynamics.
A company planning significant change or growth needs a CIO who can take company
goals and objectives and translate them into a technology vision that supports the
needs of the company both for the present and the future.
Strong planning skills and considerable experience in
transitioning an IT organization to adapt to significant
growth are important attributes of a CIO who joins this
type of company.
Having a senior manager who understands the evolution
and challenges the company will go through as it incurs
major change can be very valuable.
It will be absolutely critical to have a leader in place who
can anticipate the needs and can plan the projects
necessary to position the technology resources to support
the changes at the right time. Positioning too early is not
cost effective; too late could destroy your chances of
success in achieving your major objectives.
This CIO needs to have a solid track record in being able to manage an IT organization
capable of handling many projects concurrently and proven that his organization can
deliver them successfully.
Excellent communication skills will be needed to communicate the IT vision required to
support a dynamic company and in building an IT organization capable of supporting
such change.
A company with strategic technology needs should look for a strong experienced CIO.

- 22 -
B. Operationally critical
I place the air traffic control example in this category. The emphasis is on guaranteed
uptime of the technology. Manufacturing organizations, banks, and other companies
that have a critical reliance for online information fall into this category.
A company that has an operationally critical reliance on
technology also needs a strong, senior IT manager with
considerable experience. This is especially true if the
organization is expecting to make changes to critical
technologies of the company.
A manager who knows how to implement reliable support
processes and build an organization that can implement
change without creating business disruption is essential. There
are a lot of good technical managers out there, but those who
have skill and experience in handling operationally critical
businesses are limited.
A sound understanding and experience in key management
skills should be evaluated, including:
- Business understanding
- Change management process
- Data Center operations
- Data center security
- Applications security
- Systems and network redundancy
- Planning
- Project management
This CIO has to build a team that understands the critical nature of systems uptime. The
business depends upon it.

- 23 -
C. Supportive
An organization that needs supportive help from their technology may not need as
strong of a CIO. I go back to the sections that discuss the need to understand your
business as it exists and where youre trying to go.
If your company is running pretty smoothly and not making a lot of changes, there is a
good chance whats needed is a solid programming manager or technical infrastructure
manager. There is a big difference in a technical support manager and a Chief
Information Officer.
I view the need for a true CIO to be one that requires more strategic thinking, planning,
prioritizing, and building an IT organization capable of handling dynamically changing
business needs. If your company expects high growth or needs to make substantial
changes in the IT organization, you probably need a CIO.
A company in maintenance mode can usually operate effectively with a good technical
support manager to manage functional components of IT.
The key in determining if your need of technology is supportive is to take the time to
evaluate your current status and planned objectives.
A key idea I want to emphasize is:
Do not simply fill the position!
Your best chance of success with a new CIO or IT Manager is to understand your
business support needs as well as you can before filling the position. Hiring the right
skill and experience for the position will help you achieve your objectives.
Its just as bad a mistake to over-hire as it is to under-hire. Hiring too high a level for the
need will probably end up in the manager leaving early, maybe even before you reach
your major objective. If this happens, it makes it more difficult for a lower level, but
appropriate level manager to follow in the footsteps of a much stronger leader.
Hiring too low jeopardizes success in reaching your goals and
can become very costly by having to react to changes as
opposed to anticipating and planning for them as you would
expect from a much stronger manager.
Define what you want to accomplish, determine where you are
today, and develop a short profile as to what your ideal
candidate looks like in skill and experience.

- 24 -
Obviously, the more skill and experience you need the higher the cost. While we are on
this subject consider for a moment the old saying, You get what you pay for. It is true
in this case.
If your company has huge challenges for your technology leader, dont nickel and dime
the situation. Pay for a proven CIO who can come in and take charge of your
technology challenges and put you and your other managers at ease so you can focus
on your business. It will give you significant returns and peace of mind.
A CIO literally impacts every person in your company in some way. Find a good one
who understands ITs role is to provide business value for your company and you
position yourself to make excellent strides.
CAUTION, , , there are many IT managers who have a CIO title on their resume, but
they havent truly managed at a CIO level. They just have the title.
There is a big difference in a manager who can come in and deal with any type of
situation, deliver real business value for your company, change the support culture of
the IT organization, or build a successful IT organization to support a fast growth
company. This person operates at a CIO level.
A real CIO comes in, sizes up the situation and quickly gets ahead of the power curve.
He or she assesses the situation proactively, develops a plan of attack and gains senior
managements agreement, , , and takes care of the IT support business. This is much
different than what you will find with most IT managers who operate at a lower level.
In the next chapter, CIO or Technical Manager, I provide a Skills/Assessment Matrix to
help you develop a profile that will assist you in defining your ideal candidate.
One last time:
- Determine where you want to take your company and when.
- Define where you are today and the issues a technology manager will have.
- Quantify your immediate objectives for technology support.
By doing these simple steps, you will cut through the hiring
maze. If you have these three pieces of information in the
beginning, its going to help you quantify what you need and
find a much more capable manager for your situation.
Youre also going to position your new manager to move
much faster and more predictably in achieving your
objectives.

- 25 -
III. CIO or Technical Manager?

As we just discussed, there are significant differences in
company situations and needs. There are also big
differences in management and leadership capabilities.
A person capable of piloting a 30-foot sailboat probably
isnt qualified to handle a luxury cruise ship. A sailboat
can be handled single-handed while a cruise ship takes
considerable more coordination, organization and
management skill. Sailboat pilots just need good
technical skills. Sound familiar?
This section discusses the differences between a technical manager and a Chief
Information Officer (CIO) and provides advice on how to look at your situation to select
the right fit.
In addition you will see that there are varying degrees of skill and experience with each
type of individual. The Skills/Experience Matrix included in this section will assist you in
identifying the attributes that are most important for your company.
In this publication I refer to the CIO as a senior level executive capable of taking full
responsibility for all of a companys technology. This type of senior manager can deal
with strategic or tactical issues equally well and will start transitioning the company
toward more strategic issues quickly.
His focus will be to work on things that benefit the company the most for the long term.
A. Every company does not need a CIO
Let me get right to the point here. A CIO as discussed in this document
is a strong technology resources leader capable of taking charge of the
technology support issues of a company. He can manage any situation
that might come up in a company.
A CIO can leap tall buildings

Sorry about that, , , but seriously, a true CIO will be able to take the
toughest situation and through skill and experience be able to
systematically manage through the situation.
CIOs know how to get things done and how to transform a
dysfunctional IT organization to one that supports a company effectively
and creates tangible business value for the company.
- 26 -
A true CIO becomes a partner of other executives in the company, , , most IT managers
do not achieve such status.
A CIO begins managing an IT organization systematically:
- Conducts an IT assessment
Quantifies business needs and issues
Identifies the IT organizations capability and capacity
- Quantifies the IT support work and organization required
- Identifies and prioritizes key IT initiatives
- Develops a technology strategy driven by business need
- Communicates the strategy and gains senior management
agreement
- Develops a realistic and achievable budget
- Develops a capable and appropriate IT organization
- Incorporates change management processes to help his team succeed
- Coordinates and focuses technology resources
- Motivates the IT staff
- Gains client credibility by delivering projects successfully
- Communicates effectively to all
This is quite a lot and not everything by any stretch that a solid CIO will
do for you. For an experienced CIO, it wont matter if your company
needs to have its technology fixed or if you are planning significant
growth. A strong CIO will have all the attributes and skill to support
your needs.
A technical manager will not be as capable in these areas and will
most likely lack skill in some of them. This might be acceptable
depending upon your need.
If your company is stable and in need of a supportive technology organization as
discussed earlier, it will probably be more cost effective for you to go after a strong
Infrastructure Manager (strength in hardware, networks, and telecommunications) or
Business Applications Manager (strength in business applications and programming).
Lets break it down a bit. A centralized company relying on technology mostly for a few
company developed business applications and is in maintenance mode should look at
some type of Programming Manager. Conversely, a company with several distributed
offices requiring heavy telecommunications and networking support and has stable
business applications should look for a strong Infrastructure Manager.
The key phrase in each of these examples is maintenance or stable. The needs
grow exponentially if your business has a dysfunctional technology organization (needs
a turnaround), or if your company is planning major change or growth.
- 27 -
This is not to say that a capable IT manager who doesnt perform at a CIO level cant
have a positive impact on your company if there is a lot going on. The difference will be
in how quickly and systematically the challenges are met and how effective the
manager will be in organizing and focusing his team on the key issues of the company.
Strong CIOs will be able to quickly assess the situation, identify
a 90-day critical issues list and get those things focused on
while he begins working on a strategic IT plan.
Planning ahead while doing first things first is part of what
youre paying for in a CIO. A junior manager will focus more on
the immediate issues and be more reactive.
In my opinion, when your company needs a CIO, you want a
mature, business oriented leader who has more business
insight and stronger organizational and operational skill than
technical skill.
Just as in the example of the Captain who manages a large luxury cruise ship, the skill
he needs require more management, coordination, and leadership than technical. A
Captain does not have to know the intricacies of running the engine room, but he needs
to be able to understand when there is an engine room issue that might impact the
operation or safety of the ship and have the resources in place to deal with it.
A CIO deals with higher level issues and knows how to prioritize and organize
responsibility, , , then delegates the responsibility and holds his people accountable.
A small stable company in maintenance mode that is focusing on primarily business
applications development needs to have a strong Business Applications Manager
(programming background).
A stable company focusing on primarily providing computer connectivity to departments
or remote offices needs to have a strong Infrastructure Manager (network and
telecommunications background).
A company with both sets of issues and in the midst
of change or significant growth needs a Chief
Information Officer. And if you have a situation that
needs to be turned around, , , better find yourself a
real CIO.

- 28 -
B. What are the differences?

To illustrate the differences between an experienced CIO and Support Manager, I
developed a Technology Leadership Skills/Experience Matrix.
A blank copy is provided in the Appendix. You can use it to develop a manager profile
or assist you in evaluating a candidate, , , or maybe to evaluate a current IT manager.
The tool lists three manager types a CIO, a Technical Infrastructure Manager, and a
Business Applications Manager. Each skill or experience element has a relative scale
defined of what I have experienced is needed in each manager type.
This is not to say a Technical Infrastructure Manager who I show typically having a low
rating of a 1 in a business application skill cannot have strength in this area.
Finding an Infrastructure Manager who has business application knowledge is a plus, , ,
but you dont find it all that often. Most IT managers tend to focus where they have
experience, , , they focus on what they know.
- 29 -
Lets take a closer look at the Technology Leadership Skills Matrix.
Technology Leadership
Skills / Experience Matrix

( Relative Value Scale for Leader Types )
Skill / Experience
Business Management
Business needs assessment
Strategic planning
Develop a technology vision to support company needs
Budgeting
Presentations to senior management & board members
Presentations to department heads
Technology initiative prioritization
Organizational development
Define an organization to support business objectives
Staffing
Staff focus
Training program to fill expertise gaps, build depth
Staff development and motivation
Performance planning and reviews
Career planning
Motivation
Infrastructure
Hardware knowledge
Network knowledge
Telecommunications
Network applications (E-mail, Intranet, fax server, etc.)
Data Center operations
Support Desk
Systems security
Systems recovery
Business Applications
Business and/or industry knowledge
Programming change management process
Backlog management & communication
Research and development
Software application support / Support Desk
Software release process
Project management
Growth Management
Anticipating, planning, and positioning for growth
New Company merger and acquisition (if required)
CIO
Technical
Infrastructure
Manager
Business
Applications
Manager
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
2
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
3
3
3
3
3
2
3
3
1
1
1
1
Ratings are: 1 = low/weak ; 2 = average; 3 = high/strong

- 30 -
The completed matrix example on the previous page is filled in with relative strengths
and weaknesses for comparison purposes to show the skill areas one type of manager
needs to have strengths in versus the other two types of managers.
Any manager you work with will be different so this scale should not be taken literally for
all managers, but it will help you understand the tendencies of each of the functional
manager groups.
As you go about the process of defining the ideal candidate for your situation, this
relative strength matrix can be a helpful reference in preparing to interview candidates.
One use of the tool is to inventory a candidates skills using the matrix.
C. All CIOs are not equal
As we just mentioned, every person is different. Even identical twins in the same job will
have different strengths and weaknesses, preferences and dislikes, etc. As you work
through a process of identifying your ideal candidate you will want to focus on the key
skills that are most important to succeed in your specific environment.
More on this in the chapter titled, Successful CIO Traits.
A true CIO has a well rounded balance of management, leadership, and

communications skills with a solid technology support perspective.
With any candidate you should validate their credentials. All too often, you will see CIO
level responsibilities in a resume but you have to verify the persons description of
himself. Its very easy to tell a good story in a resume.
Check them out and develop your interviewing skills with questions that help you
determine fact from fiction. The chapter titled, The Interview will give you plenty of
material to help in this regard.
Some CIOs are more well rounded than others. You might have success if your
candidate lacks certain management skill or experience as long as its not a critical skill
required to do well in your business environment.
- 31 -
The important issue with this is to be able to evaluate a managers skills based upon
what you need for your company.
A CIO who has managed an IT support organization successfully for a $30 million
company has different capabilities than one who has led an organization supporting a
$1 billion company. In fact, most who manage such a small IT organization are probably
not operating as a true CIO would simply due to experience.
But here is a key point you need to consider. You might find an excellent CIO candidate
in a $30 company, , , just because this is where he is today does not speak to his total
experience and capability. You wont know until you interview and evaluate the person.
A CIO who has managed an IT turnaround situation has skill and experience that will be
extremely valuable if you have such a situation. A manager who has not experienced an
opportunity to fix an IT operation may experience some of these challenges for the first
time. Such a learning curve can be quite expensive for your company.
A CIO who has conducted an IT due diligence for a new company acquisition
understands the sensitivities and risks in acquiring a new company. The CIO who has
not gone through this process has the challenge of learning about it.
Are you getting the idea?
When you find a candidate who has strength in all the important skill areas you need for
your company, you had better lock the person down. In my experience they are actually
few and far between.
It still comes back to the early parts of this document. The key to your success is in
understanding your company situation as it exists today, where you want to take the
company, and the key business issues you have. When you gain a clear picture of what
you need, youre ready to create an ideal candidate profile and start lining up interviews.
One last comment
A CIO who has strengths in the areas you believe important in
getting the job done is worth a lot. When you think of the gains a
strong CIO can make in leveraging productivity, reducing
expenses, and improving operations, , , the payback is significant.
Its the same way you look at sales. You want a sales superstar
who is so good you have to pay him a lot of money because of the
sales results he can achieve.
Find a capable CIO who matches up well with your needs and treat him the same way.
It will pay dividends for you and your company.
- 32 -
IV. Successful CIO Traits

As with any senior management position there are many skills and experiences that are
beneficial, even necessary, for a CIO to be successful.
Now that you have identified where you want to go, where you are, and the immediate
business issues you have it is time to focus on the skills and attributes that are
important for a CIO to succeed.
You have also been able to reflect on your specific situation in order to develop an idea
of what you believe is going to be important for your company. At this stage, you should
know if you need a strong experienced CIO capable of leaping tall buildings or
someone a little less capable.
The next step is to take a look at specific traits needed in a CIO. Some of these traits
may exist in a more junior manager and all traits will not be strengths in every CIO
candidate you encounter.
The trick is to create a profile of an ideal CIO candidate for your company and then find
someone who matches it.
There are certain traits, skills, and experience that are important for a CIO to succeed.
Every situation is different but a few key skills will serve a manager well when trying to
provide your company with CIO-level support.
As you read this section, think about the business
issues your company has now and expects to have
in the future. Print a blank Skills/Experience Matrix
form from the Appendix so you can rate each skill
as a high, medium, or low need for your situation.
This will help you create a CIO candidate profile.
Keep in mind, , , your company situation has many
dynamics, including:
- Business maturity
- Technology organization maturity
- Technology stability
- Company culture
- Centralized or distributed
- Department and operational needs
- Company plans
- Many, many other things to consider

- 33 -
There is no guaranteed method to fill a CIO position. Its a high risk situation because of
the amount of impact a CIO has in a company, , , probably why there tends to be such a
high turnover rate with CIOs.
To some extent any new manager hire is a risk. Its hard to know if a candidate will
succeed until he is actually in the job.
However, you can minimize your risk by spending time to define what you need.
Key CIO traits needed for success are:
A. Assessment
B. Strategy
C. Planning
D. Organization
E. Implementation
F. Leadership
G. Communication
Lets start looking at each of these major skill sets.
A. Assessment
When a CIO assesses the situation he needs to focus primarily on the business. His
focus will be at a fairly high level to determine material issues and needs that exist and
what his organization can do to support the business.
His key objective will be to determine what the IT support organization should work on
to best support the companys goals and objectives.
A CIOs focus on the technology will only be to the extent to understand key issues that
exist in the IT department and the capability and capacity of the IT organization. He
does not get into the details of the technology.

- 34 -
There is a big difference between a business assessment and a technical review. At this
point, a new CIO wants to understand material issues that require IT support, , , he
does not have time to learn all the intricacies of the technology nor does he need to.
I break assessment into four key parts.
1. Documents review
2. Senior management review
3. Department reviews
4. IT support review
Personal Note: Ive led the IT due diligence in over 40 company acquisitions. In each
case, it was always important to start the discovery at the top with senior management
first. You do not really want to talk to anyone in the IT department until you get your
clients perspective of what they are trying to accomplish and how well the technology
organization is supporting these goals.
Your clients perspective is the most important and should influence your IT priorities
more than anything.
It is important to start with senior management, move to the department managers next,
and visit IT last. Interview your client first and you will be much more objective, plus their
perspective provides valuable insight that will help you in your IT department review.
A CIO must understand the business side first before he can determine if the IT
organization is in sync with and supportive of the business. Lets go through each
assessment focus area.
1. Documents review
There are several documents a CIO will need to review before
interviewing people. Some of these documents may have
information that creates questions you need to get answered
when he interviews key people in the company.
We will go through the major documents quickly in this
publication. Our purpose here is not to discuss the details of an IT
assessment but to touch on the high points. Additional material is
provided in the book, IT Assessment: the key to IT success.
Company strategy If the company has a formal company
strategy, you want to give your CIO a copy to read. If not, any type of strategic
planning documents will be helpful.
Department strategies Any of the departments who have developed strategic
plans to support the companys plan will be worth reading. Their plans may have
IT dependencies to achieve them. If so, the CIO will need to know about them.
- 35 -
Organization charts - The organization chart clarifies the

management hierarchy and scope of responsibility for the
executives as well as the department managers. It will also
point out the relative size of each organization. This can be
meaningful in the department review phase.
Company Profit and Loss Statements (P&Ls) These
reports show revenue and expense trends of the company
and how well the company is tracking to the business plan
set at the beginning of the fiscal year.
P&L reports provide information as to how the company looks at revenue and
what the primary revenue sources are. They also point out the major expenses of
the company and you can see the trends of each. This financial data helps a CIO
understand the financial picture of the company and can indicate potential risks
and/or opportunities.
Bottom line here is that the financial reports help set the stage as to where the
company is today and potentially identify challenges or questionable trends that
need to be better understood.
The IT organizations P&L reports will provide specifics in IT spending, obviously
something your CIO needs to become very familiar with.
The more a CIO can understand the companys current financial situation and
the specific challenges it faces in achieving its major objective the better. It helps
set the compass to true north as he begins to learn more at lower levels.
Contracts Dont we all love to read vendor contracts? No, we dont, , , but to
determine if the company is software compliant along with many other things, the
CIO needs to read the contracts that relate to technology. He can opt to delegate
this task to the extent he is comfortable he knows what he has.
Capital expenditure plans Company plans to purchase capital items may
identify IT support work. An astute CIO wants to be aware of this.
Current and planned projects Your CIO will need to be aware of any project
underway or planned that will need IT support, , , better for him to review
everything and make the determination himself as to how much IT is impacted.
There are more documents to be reviewed but I think you get the
point of this part of an assessment, , , a CIO has to learn what the
support need is and what his organization can do. Much of the
information is in documents he will review.
- 36 -
2. Senior management review

Its difficult, if not impossible, to hit the target if you dont know what the real
target is. Yes, you can bring a solid manager in and turn him loose to fix and
improve your technology, but he wont be as effective unless he understands the
business needs and issues of your company.
A true CIO is going to identify most of the IT support targets
from senior management and department manager
interviews even though you may not have formally defined
and documented them. A lower level manager may not
have the maturity and experience to do this.
When looking for your CIO, ask how he/she will go about
defining the technology support initiatives for your
company. If you dont get a sense that this person is going
to understand the big picture first and then work down to
the technology organization, then you may have the wrong candidate.
A strong CIO focuses technology resources based upon business need.
A couple of thoughts are worth remembering:
IT organizations exist to support the business.

Add new technology only if there is business value.
With these thoughts its easy to see that the CIO role is to support the business
first, last, and always. There is no other agenda. Too often, a company hires the
candidate who talks a good game only to find out that his initiatives miss the
target and do not provide real value for your company.
Shame on you!, if this happens.

I believe its important for senior management to be intimately involved in the
selection process of a CIO, , , and especially to provide early guidance and
inspect his initial support strategy recommendations.
Its appropriate to give a CIO plenty of slack but you should make it your
business to stay abreast of where hes headed in supporting your company and
inspect to insure that it fits company plans.
- 37 -
No one expects a CEO or CFO to conduct an IT assessment and come up with

an IT strategy, , , thats why you want to hire a CIO right? But, its easy enough
to review a CIOs recommendations before you start spending money and
impacting people in the company.
You need to gauge whether a CIOs recommendations are client and business
driven or technology driven. If your CIO cant articulate reasons for doing things
in a business light, there is a good chance the strategy is technology driven.
A good CIO has strong assessment skills and will be
able to tie every IT initiative recommendation to a
business need or issue. In addition, every
recommendation will be cost justified and discussed
in business terms that you can understand, , , not in
technology acronyms and techy jargon.
What should be included in a CIOs business
assessment?
An IT assessment (remember its actually a business
assessment) should identify several things.
First and foremost it will identify material business needs and issues that require
IT support. Most of this comes from client interviews, observing, and conducting
research in areas that help the CIO learn about the company.
Secondly, it will quantify IT support capability and capacity which tells the CIO
what his IT organization is capable of doing.
From all of this there will be risks and opportunities. The CIO will need to
eliminate or minimize risks, and the company will want him to go after the
opportunities he discovers.
Once a CIO knows whats going on and the status of things, he can develop an
IT support strategy, , , it would be very difficult to develop a meaningful support
strategy without a good assessment.
We wont go into the process details of an IT assessment. Additional information
is provided in IT Assessment: the key to IT success if you want to learn more.

- 38 -
The executive or senior management review part of the CIOs assessment is to

gain an understanding in how the company sees itself and what it wants to
achieve, , , to answer, What are your goals and objectives for the company?
Starting the assessment at the top with senior management allows the CIO to
hear from the people charged with full responsibility of the companys welfare.
Senior management usually has a pretty clear idea about where they want to
take the company and what they expect to achieve. They may not have all the
parts identified that get them there but most executives at this level can articulate
what they believe to be the company goals and objectives.
Ask a senior manager about his business and he can
usually talk all day, even though he may not have a
formal company strategy in place.
I cant emphasize enough that a thorough IT
assessment begins with a clear understanding of senior
managements perspective of the business, its
objectives, current status, challenges, etc.
Learning the global perspectives and direction of the
company sets the stage for the next levels of interviews
with department managers and the IT organization.
3. Department reviews
Interviews with senior management have identified the departments and how
they fit into the company. They have also named the department managers and
should lead you to the departments that need technology support the most. The
CIO should begin with departments with the greatest dependency on technology.
The CIO will formulate specific questions and observations needed for each
department interview based upon research and senior management interviews.
The objective of this level of the assessment is to understand the business of
each department to an extent and their specific needs, challenges, problems,
capabilities and dependencies in technology. This should include both current
and future needs.
A good CIO learns about the business and translates what he hears about the
managers business issues and needs into IT support issues.

- 39 -
The CIO also needs to size up his customer. In order to communicate

effectively in the future it will be important to understand as quickly as possible
the individual strengths and weaknesses of all departments of the company.
Why is a department assessment needed?
Several reasons actually. For example, if the company is about to experience
considerable growth, part of the CIOs responsibility will be to help support each
departments challenges during growth transition, , , such as adding people,
supporting office relocations, improving productivity, etc. that might take place.
Im not suggesting the CIO has all the answers; , , he will not. But, if you can find
a CIO who has been through major growth he will have valuable insight on the
planning and preparation needed throughout the company to support it.
The same principle holds true in the event major technology changes are
needed. In order to implement significant technology change, the receiving
departments have to be prepared.
The department review helps the CIO begin the evaluation of how well positioned
other departments are to absorb new changes. Much will be based upon how
competent the department is with the existing technology and how mature the
employees and managers are in being able to go through major change.
Change can be difficult. If significant growth or change is in the forecast, the CIO
has to determine the abilities of departments to receive and adapt to the changes
as well as his own teams ability to implement them. The department reviews are
the first opportunity to begin making this assessment.
These reviews provide an opportunity of validating much of what the CIO hears
in the executive review. It also gives the CIO an opportunity to verify whether or
not the department understands its role in the company and is operating in sync
with the stated business objectives of the company.

- 40 -
A few questions a CIO will want to get answered will be:

Is the department happy with IT support? If not, , , why not?
Is IT support focused on your priorities? If not, , , why not?
Is IT support responsive to your needs? If not, , , why not?
Does the department have the technology they need to do their jobs?
Are there business needs and issues that require IT support?
How strong is the department in its understanding and use of technology?
How well positioned is the department to undergo major change?
Are there critical issues that need to be addressed?
Who are the major client managers and what are their hot buttons?
The department interviews along with the executive interviews and research now
provide the CIO with significant material for the IT support review.

- 41 -
4. IT support review
After the CIO understands the missions, issues, concerns, and challenges of the
executives and department managers of the company, he has the background
needed to review and assess the technology organization.
It is not uncommon for the business groups and the IT organization to have
different perspectives, sometimes referred to as an ITBusiness Disconnect.
It is the CIOs job to understand where the differences are and why they exist.
In todays business environment there are huge demands on everyone in the
company, especially the managers. If there are significant differences in
perspective of how well the IT organization is performing, the CIO must:
- Quantify any differences that exist
- Determine why they exist
- Identify steps that will close the gaps
Companies lose millions of dollars in lost productivity when an ITBusiness
disconnect occurs. If there is a gap, the CIO must find it and do what it takes to
eliminate the gap, , , it is not the business sides responsibility to do this.
If your company needs a CIO, you want someone who knows how to identify
such a gap and what to do to close the gap if it exists in your company.
Sidebar: Typically, I have found the following scenario exists in most companies.
The departments express a need for better technology. They describe a technical
organization that tends to be unresponsive and unreliable in delivery of technical
support and new technology products/services.
The technology organization describes itself as an organization that is
overworked with users who are incompetent, who have unrealistic expectations,
and do not appreciate IT efforts. They believe IT support is doing a good job and
focused on appropriate priorities for the company.
This type of disconnect is more the norm than the exception. If this is what you
hear, there is a gap. Many studies suggest over 50% of IT organizations are out
of sync with their company.
- 42 -
A strong CIO will recognize and address this problem.

In an IT support review the focus of the CIO is to understand:
1. Is the IT organization in sync with the business?
2. Is IT properly focused on business needs and issues?
3. Is the IT organization responsive to the client?
4. Is the IT department working in a client service mode?
5. Are processes in place to help IT deliver support successfully?
6. Is the technology stable, secure, and appropriately available?
7. Are the business applications addressing the needs of the company?
8. What is the capability and capacity of the current technology resources
and is it sufficient to support the needs of the company?
Obviously, the level of understanding needed takes more time than this initial
assessment. These early findings, however, will highlight the areas that need
immediate attention or more research.
The overall objective of the reviews is to size up the business needs and issues
and size up the capability and capacity of the IT organization to support them.
The better the CIO is able to quantify the demand and supply of your companys
technology support business the better your chances are of success.
Being able to assess the needs of the company is a critical skill the CIO must
have. He must be able to identify what that need is so that the goals and
objectives can be met.
Im sure you have heard, Round pegs fit round holes.
Believe it!!
A capable CIO will identify the holes that need filling
and incorporate efforts into a strategy that focuses the
right type of resources on the appropriate priorities to
solve the issues that need solving for your company.
Just as a capable CIO can and will focus IT resources to work on the appropriate
priorities, your task is to insure you get the right CIO for your particular situation.
Finding the right IT management resource is

essential for your success.

- 43 -
B. Strategy
The second key skill trait a CIO must have is strategy. A CIO must take the information
learned in an assessment and develop an appropriate IT strategy to support the
business. It is up to the CIO to create a vision and set the direction for your companys
technology focus.
Being able to understand the goals, quantify the issues at hand, and anticipate the
needs of the future are the first priorities, , , its why assessment is the first skill trait we
talk about. Transferring these items into a vision and a logical progression that positions
the company now and into the future to achieve what it must to succeed is critical.
Creating the vision requires someone who thinks long term versus a reactor of
circumstance. In my experience there are three types of managers. A company may
have all three, but I believe the CIO should be more strategic.
1. Reactionary Manager - This type of manager is good at dealing with day to
day issues that pop up but lacks strategic thinking. Most technology support
managers fall into this category.
2. Troubleshooting Manager - This type of manager is the one you assign the
most difficult situation, , , like calling in Red Adair to fight the oil well fire.
Most companies need a Red Adair at times but you should work hard to
prevent the fires.
3. Planning Manager - A manager who anticipates and plans tends to have
much fewer surprises to deal with. Reactionary and troubleshooting
managers end up costing the company much more when they are in high
level positions.
A CIO needs to be a planner, , , not the reactionary or the troubleshooter.
It is important for a CIO to develop an IT strategy for your company, , , even if you do
not have a formal company strategy.
Let me repeat this in a different way, , ,
The absence of a company strategy is no excuse for the CIO to not

have an IT strategy.

- 44 -
If you conduct an assessment and then develop and propose a strategy to support the
business needs and issues you discovered, , , and senior management agrees to your
plan, , , there is no way for IT to be out of sync with the business.
This is absolutely critical

to prevent an IT-Business disconnect!!
As a new CIO in a company, I always preferred to break an IT strategy into 2 or 3 parts:
- First 90-120 days immediate strategy
- 6 to 12 month tactical strategy
- 18 to 24 month long term strategy
A 90-120 day strategy is pure tactical and only used in a new company situation with
critical issues that are essentially on fire. Immediate action is required. Ive used this in
a couple of companies I joined and in many acquired companies where there were
significant IT problems. An immediate strategy is like dialing 911, , , we have major
problems and must focus on them immediately.
The 6 to 12 month tactical strategy is intended to focus on important issues. Once a
CIO focuses his staff on these, he begins work to develop the long term strategy. These
projects start to take on the flavor of the CIOs leadership and interpretation of the
companys issues and needs.
The 18 to 24 month long term strategy includes project initiatives that tend to require
more investment in effort, time and money to accomplish. They also tend to have bigger
benefits. I personally prefer to keep a long term strategy to 24 months or less because
technology changes so fast. If a company requires a 5-year IT strategy, we will develop
one but the further out the plan goes the more general it becomes.
In most company situations, I developed tactical and long term strategies. An immediate
strategy is only used when you have a train wreck that needs to be fixed quickly.
Another technique that I use consistently is to develop a visual presentation of the
technology plan for senior management, department managers, and the IT staff. This
presentation provides a 10,000 foot level perspective which helps you describe the
overall plan and aides your audience in seeing how major projects fit with one another.
In other words, part of developing an IT strategy is creating a
vision of where you are headed. Developing a clear picture of the
targeted initiatives and empowering capable people will achieve
significant results. An example of an IT strategy is included in my
book titled, IT Strategy: align your IT vision for business value.
- 45 -
Part of the reason you break strategy into two or three parts is because its impossible
to go in as a new CIO and learn all that you need to know in a few weeks. It takes
months to get a complete grasp on the needs of the company, its issues, and the
strengths/weaknesses of the business departments and IT organization.
In the meantime, there are some key issues that need to be
addressed right now, which is why a CIO focuses quickly on
short term support issues. Once the short term plan is
approved and the IT staff is focusing on these short term
issues, he begins work to develop a long term strategy.
A CIOs specific plans will change somewhat as he learns
more about the company and the dynamics surrounding your
business.
What should you expect to receive in an IT strategy presentation?
Do you remember the lesson for giving a presentation?
1. Tell them what youre going to tell them.
2. Tell them your message.
3. Tell them what you told them.
This principle holds true for communicating a technical vision. Its important to establish
the strategy and reinforce it constantly so all know where technology is headed and
have an opportunity to assist in its progress or challenge it as needed.
Thats right, , , a CIOs job is to develop an
IT strategy recommendation and present it
to senior management. It is the CEO and
CFOs job to review, challenge, and
ultimately approve the strategy.
A CIO puts a stake in the ground about
what he thinks the IT organization should do
to support the company based upon his
assessment. The senior management team
has the right and obligation to challenge and
question his recommendations.
Senior management must understand, agree and approve the IT strategy, , , otherwise
there is a high likelihood there will be an IT-Business disconnect. You have no real
strategy until senior management approves the strategy and agrees to support and fund
it. Up until this point, all you have is a strategy recommendation.
- 46 -
An IT strategy should include several high level points for senior management:
1. Major objectives and benefits
2. Key project initiatives
3. Major risks and/or challenges
4. General sense of the cost requirements
5. Rough timeframes
Remember, when a CIO presents a strategic IT plan proposal, he is at 10,000 feet, not
at a detail project planning level. His cost and timeframe estimates will be estimates, not
specifics, , , unless of course the senior management team requires more precise detail.
As with anything, a new manager has to address certain things first. In general, any
companys technology has to have some basics in place to effectively develop and
implement strategic projects.
Sidebar: An example would be in how you go about building a new house. You have to
have a solid foundation first, then an infrastructure to support activities of home living
such as plumbing and electrical wiring. After these things are in place, the builder can
go about finishing the inside to make it look like a home.
Technology requires the same type of solid foundations and infrastructure to work
effectively for a company and thats supportable.
You can visualize this in a graphic I created
called the IT Project Priority Hierarchy.
The bottom three foundation layers need to be
solidly in place before you go after high profile
projects in the top two layers. Without a solid
foundation, you will ultimately have breakage
with cost and support challenges far greater
than if you take care of these foundation
issues up front.
Everyone wants their CIO to focus on the
Strategic Projects at the top of the pyramid due
to the huge benefits they offer.
He better place priority on the lower level foundations.
Personal Note: In one company we knew we were going to buy many companies as
we consolidated a portion of the healthcare industry. By understanding this, we focused
aggressively in doing things in the bottom three foundation levels of the pyramid to
position ourselves for the heavy lifting work ahead.
- 47 -
C. Planning
Strategy is defining a vision of what you are going to
do. Planning is developing how you will get it done.
Planning is not a natural skill for most people. Its
easier to react than to take the time and put forth the
effort to plan, , , and most people take the easier
route. They react.
An effective CIO must have solid planning skills.
You can do a great assessment and develop an eloquent strategy that gets lots of
approval and positive comments; but if your organization cant develop the detail plan,
you wont get much accomplished.
There are also managers who become stuck and cant act
because they become overwhelmed or they are so detail
oriented that they freeze up and cant move forward.
It was Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States who
said, Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action
arrives, stop thinking and go in. General Jackson won the
Battle of New Orleans against overwhelming odds of a much
more powerful British Army because of his strategy and
planning skills.
When a CIOs strategy is approved by senior management he has to coordinate his
management team to develop and execute the detail plans that will win the battles.
Planning requires the ability to:
Define tasks required to complete key initiatives
Identify appropriate resources to do the job
Understand resource allocations
Estimate appropriate timelines to complete tasks
Budget
Planning skills are a core competency of a capable CIO.

- 48 -
D. Organization
A CIO needs strong organization skills. He must be able to organize thoughts and
resources into logical approaches to address issues and solve problems. There are
several areas pertaining to organization, including:
- Organizing the issues & determining priority
- Organizing and coordinating resources
- Building an effective IT organization
Often, a company has adequate IT resource capacity to address its business needs but
poor organization delivers much less than the IT department is capable of.
Personal Note: I joined a company and its IT organization had two distinct client
groups. The primary client included internal company departments that used the
technologies built and supported by IT. This part represented 96% of the revenue
contribution to the company.
The second client was a group of 42 external Turnkey clients who licensed the
software we developed and supported for our internal client business. Turnkey
contributed 4% of our companys revenue.
Our internal clients considered IT support to be free whereas Turnkey clients had a
strong appreciation for the cost of IT support. The other dynamic was that Turnkey
clients were very happy while our internal clients were unhappy with IT support.
Because of the relative ease in working with the Turnkey clients (4% of the revenue),
the IT support organization was inappropriately focusing about 70% of its support
resource to them.
As a new CIO, I had to first recognize that this was occurring. Then, I had to identify the
issues that were the most important for the real client and refocus our IT resources to
the appropriate business issues of our true client, , , the internal departments.
Our company had an appropriate capacity of IT resource; it was just misapplied.
I ultimately closed the Turnkey business. This was a hard decision but necessary to
change our support culture quickly. We simply couldnt afford to run a Turnkey business
while positioning our company for significant growth of our primary business.
You should expect your CIO to be capable of quantifying the issues, focusing the
resource on the right priorities and developing an organization to support your company.
- 49 -
E. Implementation
Can your CIO deliver the goods? Implementation is the tough part.
At a CIO level, implementation takes form through others and not actually by the CIO
himself. The ability to identify, plan, and organize is not enough if the CIO does not
know how to get things done through his team.
A CIO must understand the principles of project management and have in his personal
arsenal the skills to empower others to get the job done using a sound project
management methodology. In addition, there are going to be a lot of issues and many
things to be accomplished so a CIO has to be able to multi-process.
If your CIO candidate cant provide examples that he can deliver what he says he will
do, move on quickly. You will want to verify he has a track record of leading an
organization that delivers projects on time and within budget, , , and most importantly,
delivers business value.
You want your CIO to be able to provide leadership that delivers technology products
and services in a predictable, reliable, and cost effective manner. If he does not use
project management tools and disciplines in the IT organizations implementation of
technology, you will not receive these results.
Project management discipline must start with the CIO. If it does, the entire IT team will
follow his lead and incorporate a project management style into their day to day efforts.

- 50 -
F. Leadership
A CIO must lead. There is too much depending on the IT organization for your company
to succeed. Senior management should look for a leader in a CIO.
There are several key traits in a leader:
Organize with clear definition of roles A CIO must focus the IT staff by
placing each employee in the right position and assigning them responsibilities
that will achieve success for the company. Let me explain by using a football play
graphic below:
In the example, the offensive line is represented by the green circles; the
opposing teams defense is represented by the red triangles. Part of the
leadership role of a CIO is to define the position and responsibility of each player.
In this example, players A & B are assigned to block one defensive area while
player C has to handle one on his own.
Each player has to have confidence that every player will take care of his
individual assignment. Breaking rank to fix an area breaks down the
organization and causes problems. Ive seen several IT organizations fail
because there has been no clear distinction of roles and responsibility.
Performance Planning & Review Performance plans define
the responsibility and performance reviews tell your employees if
they are doing a good job. IT employees need both to succeed.
Training A good leader prepares his team by providing the
training and tools needed to do the job.

- 51 -
Empowerment The ability to empower people in the IT organization helps you

get more accomplished. People who feel empowered and appreciated for their
talents and efforts will go long distances for you and achieve more. I believe this
to be the most important trait in leadership.
Appreciation Everyone needs to be appreciated, and you receive back what
you give. It doesnt take a lot to appreciate your staff and IT employees will
achieve more when their managers show genuine appreciation for their efforts.
Motivation Leading others requires motivation. The CIO should lead by
example and motivate the team in ways that reinforces positive behavior to
achieve success in supporting the business.
Personal Note: In the Marine Corps, I learned quickly that I could complete a job by
ordering my subordinates to do the job. It was harder, but the most valuable lesson I
learned was that the job was accomplished with higher quality and much more
thoroughly when the men were motivated and empowered to do the job. Without buyin or ownership, the results are lower.

- 52 -
G. Communication
The next trait a successful CIO must have is strong communication skills. He must be
able to communicate with business managers in business terms and with IT staff in
technical terms.
The technology staff and IT clients need to hear from
their CIO. A good CIO will set up communication
processes to keep everyone updated about:
ITs mission and strategy
The importance of the IT support role
Project status
Feedback of successes
Areas of improvement needed
Business value IT is delivering
A CIO sets the tone by implementing communication processes throughout the
company to keep everyone aware of whats happening in IT support and the benefits
that are derived from it. It is very important for IT employees to see their CIO as a strong
leader; they see this by how he communicates more than any other trait.
The CIO is the bridge between the business managers and the IT staff. He has to be
able to translate mission and purpose into an effective technology vision and help the IT
organization understand its role of helping the company realize its goals. The CIO has
to break the global vision down into components that the IT staff and business
managers alike can understand.
Effective communication is a key part in an IT organization becoming a partner with the
business units of the company. Without these partnerships, an IT organization will have
limited success.

- 53 -
V. Defining Your Ideal CIO

So far this publication has been focused on defining what you need for your company
and the traits you should look for in a CIO. There are several variables associated with
working through a process to define the exact IT management need for your company.
In this section we will assist you through a process of defining an ideal CIO candidate.
This approach should work for most situations and can be tweaked as needed.
In general, CIOs come from one of two technical backgrounds. Usually
the candidates background is heavier in either systems infrastructure
(hardware and networks) or business applications (programming).
As an IT managers career evolves and he takes on more responsibility,
his technical skills will decline. This is appropriate as he needs to focus
more on planning, leadership, and processes required to succeed in an
IT support function and let his staff be the technical experts.
In my experience most CIOs come from the business application side simply because
of the business acumen you gain in this part of IT support. A CTO (Chief Technical
Officer) tends to come from the infrastructure side due to the technical nature of his
management responsibility.
Depending upon your companys specific needs and what you want to achieve, you
may want someone with one type of background over another.
Personal Note: My early technical background was in business applications. I have
always felt that I could work at whatever level of detail I needed to within business
applications due to my experience in that area.
To deal with systems infrastructure issues I always had to
depend upon a strong technical resource that I could count
on to focus on the systems side of our support business. I
was comfortable in understanding the issues and questioning
recommendations so that I clearly understood the risk, benefit
and cost implications of infrastructure projects. I developed
comfort in being able to delegate and empower others in an
area where I lacked depth in expertise and experience.
A practical CIO will know where he lacks skill and experience
and will insure that he has these areas covered by competent
staff or external resources he can rely upon.

- 54 -
How do you go about defining the ideal CIO candidate?

I believe you should go through a couple of exercises:
1. Go through your companys business needs definition and rate each.
2. Go through Successful CIO Traits in the last chapter and rate each.
To assist, I have included a chart on the next page that will help you develop a
composite of the ideal manager for your situation based upon what we have discussed
in this publication.
Rate each element with a 1 to 5 rating with 5 being the greatest need. As you go
through this simple process, highlight the 4s and 5s and you will begin to see the traits
that are needed for your CIO candidate.
Taking 5-10 minutes to do this will help you think about interview questions and have an
idea of what you are looking for when you start looking at candidates.
This is a highly subjective process to be sure, but it will assist you in your thought
process in determining what is important for your company at this given point in time.
The better you are able to define your need the better you will be in finding a candidate
who matches up well for your company, , , plus you will be able to ask better questions
in an interview.

- 55 -
My Ideal CIO
Company Needs
Item
Rating
Technical Infrastructure
IT Project Management
IT staff improvement
IT staff motivation
IT assessment
IT vision & strategy
IT planning
IT change management
processes
Network services
IT predictability
IT support
Strategic projects
IT leadership
IT communication
IT financial understanding
Skills / Experience Needed

Item
Rating
Assessment
Strategy
Planning
Organization
Implementation
Leadership
Communication
State of the Company

Stable & mature
Stable
Stable but expecting
major change or growth
Needs improvement
Turnaround situation

- 56 -
VI. What Should You Pay?

If your company needs a Chief Information Officer, you are looking for someone to
become part of your senior executive team.
A CIO is in a position of the company to improve the productivity of all departments in
your company. He can also facilitate the development of new products and services that
differentiates the company and makes your company more competitive.
The CIO is also the only manager in your company who can potentially reduce the
operations cost of every department within your company.
A strong CIO gives your company real leverage and
when these things happen your company becomes
more valuable. To say a CIO is worth his weight in
gold can quite often be an understatement.
A good CIO communicates with business managers
in business value terms, not in technology jargon that
you wont understand. He recommends projects that
will provide quantifiable business value, his
recommendations are business driven, , , and they are always cost justified.
His organization is always in sync with the business because he doesnt work on things
unless senior management has agreed to them and is willing to support them. When a
good CIO spends money, senior management knows about it and understands why.
Sounds pretty basic doesnt it? Unfortunately, its not how most of the world operates. If
you are looking for a CIO, you have an opportunity to establish some guidelines that will
make it a much more beneficial relationship with your IT organization.
Pay the right person well and create as much incentive for this role as you
would any other senior management role, especially if your company is
dependent on a smooth running technology.
Get a good one and it will make everyones life much better and your
company more profitable and successful.

- 57 -
Typical CIO compensation packages take on some or all of the following attributes:
- Base salary & benefits (in the $150k to $300k range or more
depending upon size of company and levels of responsibility)
- Annual bonus tied to company achieving business plan (20% to 50% of
annual salary is common)
- Stock options or equity ownership
- Extra bonus incentives based upon specific initiatives
- Signing bonus in cash or company stock
- 401k with company match
- Executive top hat program to supplement 401k contributions up to x%
allowed
- Club membership
Not all of these perks are always in place, but we are seeing more and more attention
paid to strong CIOs every day. In many companies the CIO is one of the highest paid
managers on the team due to the contribution opportunity and leverage he has to help
the company achieve its goals and objectives.
A solid CIO will pay the company back many times over by
doing the things that improve productivity, reduce cost, and
help differentiate the company. No longer is a CIO
considered to be a manager who just needs to manage a
network and provide Data Center services. A CIO needs to
be a business manager first with strong technical insight to
help move the company forward in a predictable manner.
Personal Note: In every company I have been part of I
have ultimately been able to reduce the cost of IT as a per
cent of revenue. As the company grows and you are able to
do more with the IT resources because of better focus, this
savings goes directly toward increasing EBITDA (Earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).
Better IT products and services provided to the employees of the company improve
productivity allowing them to accomplish more work in a day.
A CIO is a key investment, , , you need to make a good choice and if you do, the
benefits to your company can be huge.

- 58 -
VII. Where to Look

How do you find that ideal CIO candidate? Good question, , , they are not walking
around all over the place.
You know what youre looking for if you have done your homework and a couple of
exercises in earlier parts of this document. So, with a concise profile, now its time to
start looking for your candidate.
Here is how I would go about it. Change the process to fit your specific needs.
1. Develop a short, 1-page bullet list of attributes you need for your company.
2. Contact your network and let them know what youre looking for and ask them
to let others they know about your need. You probably arent surprised by
how large your 2-level network is.
3. Contact previous CIOs that you have worked with or know about and seek
their help.
4. Go online and place an executive listing on Executive Search systems, or
similar services. Only do this if you are prepared to deal with resume
submissions, , , its a waste of everyones time if you arent.
5. Contact an executive search firm.
6. Place an ad in the local papers as a last resort. (Not recommended because
you will get lots of inappropriate responses)
I place the executive search firm well down the
list only because you have an excellent chance
of finding a quality fit within your own network
of resources first. Give this option a couple of
weeks before you require paid assistance.
Larger companies often use an executive
search firm first and thats fine if you prefer to
go this way. It all depends upon your
companys situation and needs.
One other advantage of using an executive search firm is that a good one will do a nice
job of filtering out candidates so you only have to spend time with a few. The key in
using an executive search firm is to be as specific on what you are looking for as
possible. Sound familiar?
I listed the newspaper ad option but do not recommend it unless you have someone
available to sift through hundreds of resumes. Also, with todays internet services, fewer
people are using the newspaper ad route for executive placements.

- 59 -
VIII. The Interview

Remember an earlier message, Do not simply fill the position!!. Spend time to find
your ideal candidate, , , it will pay off with big dividends.
We will not spend time on how to interview; I assume you already know how to do that.
The interview is the final critical part of getting the right manager for your company so I
want to emphasize a few key points.
Hopefully, you have developed a picture of what you need for the company and the
skills and experiences that are most important in an individual. In the interview its up to
you and the other managers who interview your candidates to validate that they have
these assets and experiences to bring to your company.
An interview is a 2-way process!!

A strong CIO candidate will be interviewing you and your company as much as you are
interviewing him (or her). He will have very good interviewing skills so its important to
be prepared. First impressions count for a lot, , , for both parties.
Prepare for the interview:
To get the most out of an interview you need to be prepared and know
exactly what you want to ask a CIO candidate. In addition, you may want
to coach others who will interview your candidate on key things you are
looking for so they can help you in your final evaluation.
Here are some key things to consider when preparing for your interviews:
Prepare key questions to evaluate the fit in skills and experience
that you need.
Include open-ended questions that encourage the candidate to talk
about himself and his experiences.
Ask for examples that exhibit business understanding and successes.
Describe a situation and ask how the candidate would go about handling it.
Prepare to describe your company, its mission and objectives, and what it takes
to be successful.
Review the candidates resume and identify areas that need clarification or that
you want to discuss more to understand the candidates background, experience
and qualifications.
As you think about your interview one of the things you want to try and uncover is how
this person will fit into your management team. You need a partner running IT who will
be open, honest and has the same values as you and the rest of your team.
- 60 -
The Interview what you want to learn:

As an executive of the company, there are many important things you want to learn in a
CIO candidate interview. My list follows; you will undoubtedly have other items:
- Is he a self-starter?
- How does he work under pressure?
- Does he focus IT based upon business need or focus on technology?
- Is he organized?
- Does he have leadership traits?
- Do you understand him or does he speak in technical jargon?
- Does he understand what business value is and the importance for IT to
deliver tangible and quantifiable business value?
- How well does he work with a team and with other managers?
- Can he motivate an IT staff?
- Can he build an effective and appropriate IT organization?
- Can he demonstrate he delivers projects on time and within budget?
- Can he develop a vision and strategy that fits the business need?
- Is he a planner or reactor?
- How well does he conduct his interview of you and the company?
- Are his assessment skills strong?
- How mature are his budgeting skills?
- Has the candidate accomplished feats similar to issues you need to solve in
your company?
- Has he managed a comparable IT organization in the past?
Verify credentials
Always verify the credentials the candidate gives you. Its easy for a good talker to sell
his capabilities and you will waste a lot of time and money if they prove to be
exaggerations. A solid candidate will welcome you checking out references and you
owe it to the company to do so.
Many a candidate has been hired to discover later that the information on the resume is
not accurate.

- 61 -
IX. The Offer

Every offer of employment to a manager, especially an executive manager like a CIO
should be a formal letter from his new manager. It should include:
Effective date of hire or starting date
Title and responsibility
Who he/she will report to
Starting salary and other compensation (bonus, etc.)
Stock options or other equity offer made
Indication of healthcare benefits, 401k, etc.
Vacation allowed
Moving allowance, if applicable
Any specific benefit or issue discussed when negotiating the package
Any specific issue you want to tie to the offer
Your offer letter is probably the first formal thing the CIO candidate will see from his new
company. Its important for it to be organized, to the point, and comprehensive in the
content you include. This letter offers you an opportunity to make a very positive
impression on your new executive, , , it is important to get started positively.
Your letter should also state a deadline by which you expect a response so everyone
can close the interview and offer process.
What I like to do is call the candidate and discuss the points that are
in the offer letter and suggest that the letter will be mailed today. This
adds a personal touch and gives the candidate a heads up so you
can move forward.
When you do this, it is important to be enthusiastic so your candidate
understands how excited you are for him to join the team. Great
things are going to happen for both of you if you have found the right
candidate for your company.
This call also gives you more opportunity to get to know your new
manager and for him to get to know you, , , it will help expedite
things once he starts his new job.
On the other side, your new CIO may ask for you to provide some things before he
arrives so he can hit the ground running. Its up to you if you want to do this or you can
suggest he wait until he starts and can get settled in a bit.

- 62 -
X. Ready, Set, Go!

If you are a CEO or CFO and you are still reading, I am truly impressed. I debated long
and hard while writing this material as to whether it was too much for the audience Ive
targeted it to. This is the final chapter. You have selected a CIO and he is about to start
his first day. It is extremely important to start on the right foot.
As a CIO, Im going to give you the list of information that I would
want to receive the first week at my new company. The better you
can prepare for his start the faster your CIO will be able to proceed
and start getting things organized for you.
Just as it was worth spending a little time to define specific needs of
your company and what youre trying to accomplish, you should take
time to prepare a quick orientation for your new CIO when he
arrives, , , it will help him get off to a fast start.
The following is a list of the items and information I would want that helps a new CIO get
started quickly in a new company:
1. Company
Mission
Business challenges / issues
Industry segment, competition, opportunities
2. Organization
Organization charts and key managers in each department
IT Employee list name, position, expertise, salary information, insight
into strengths and weaknesses
Process for defining and prioritizing major initiatives
3. Hardware/Systems
Vendor platforms / operating systems supported and how many
Life expectancy
Replacement strategy
Copy of a site disaster recovery plan
Networks (Local Area Networks, Wide Area Networks)
4. Business Applications Software
Location
Supported by (internal or outside vendor)
Primary customer/department and an estimated number of users
accessing each major business application
- 63 -
5. Existing and Planned Projects

Large-scale projects re-engineering replacement, new systems, etc.
Mid-range enhancements
Maintenance backlog
New business development needs
Productivity enhancements
6. Operational and Capital Budgets
Investments needed to maintain normal growth
Major investments needed
Evaluate operating budget as a percentage of revenue
Evaluate technical expense required to support each business service
Current year budget both operational and capital
P&L reports (12-month trends and YTD actual to budget) for the company
and the IT department
7. Status of where the company is today. Senior management needs to identify
the needs, problems, critical initiatives, and key priorities that need immediate
attention. At a minimum, address the status of the following areas.
IT support
Technical services from 3rd party vendors
Network connectivity
Security concerns
E-mail
Uptime (system availability)
Internet/intranet capability & access
Business applications
Reliability
Mission critical feature/function that exists or is needed
Technology gaps
IT track record of delivering new projects on time and in a quality manner
User perspective of the IT department
Strength and maturity of the current IT staff
Strength and maturity of non-IT department managers
You will not have all the information Ive listed and thats ok, but a diligent CIO will work
hard to learn as much as he can as quickly as possible. Reaching into the organization
to get the material that helps get everyone off to a fast start is highly recommended.
Even if you do not have some of this information, your insight or perspective will be
helpful. The point is that you want to bring your new CIO up to speed as quickly as you
possibly can.
- 64 -
XI. Summary
A CIO is a key manager in your company and one of the few executives who can
positively impact every manager and department in your company.
A strong CIO offers your company real leverage if you understand and take advantage
of it. As such, you must find a capable manager to lead your technology resources.
In addition, you need to find someone who has the same business values as you and
your management team and can become a true business partner. When business units
and IT click by being on the same page with another, special things can happen.
The key to finding the right IT leadership fit for your company is to conduct a self
evaluation of what your company needs and the state of your company situation.
Use the Technology Leadership Skills/Experience Matrix to help you define what you
need and to evaluate the candidates you end up interviewing.
Your selection will have a major bearing on the success of your company so take time
to work through your selection process and give thought to the interpersonal skills of a
candidate as well as his or her technical knowledge. At the end of the day, a CIOs
ability to focus resources on the business issues is far more important than his technical
knowledge and expertise.
One last thing. You have heard me talk about business value quite a bit. I define
business value very specifically to be:
- Increase revenue
- Decrease cost
- Improve productivity
- Differentiate the company
- Improve client satisfaction
An experienced CIO focuses his IT organization to deliver business value. He
understands the leverage potential technology offers a company, but that its not very
useful if it does not produce business value for the company.
Find a CIO who focuses on your business and partners with your management team
and you have a formula for success.

- 65 -
APPENDIX A
Mike Sisco Resume
MICHAEL L. SISCO
SUMMARY
Information Systems executive with demonstrated leadership in acquisitions, technology

assimilations, and support management. Strong focus on key business issues and profitability
with consistent record of exceeding business plan objectives. Expertise in strategic planning
and team building skills. Proven record in IT organization turnaround, development and growth.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
U.S. HEALTHWORKS
1999-2000
Senior Vice President / Chief Information Officer
Established a tactical technology operations plan to increase technical services to users, create
corporate support credibility, and to position this $100 million revenue company for acquisition
growth. Developed a strategic technology vision to support the companys business model and
to differentiate it from competitors. Created an operations plan and staffed the organization to
achieve all objectives. In the first year, over $250,000 was saved while improving the technical
services to the company.
Restored technology support credibility by focusing resources to the key issues of the
company, communicating our direction, and delivering on commitments.
Managed the stabilization of a 70 clinic office location supported by a frame relay wide area
network. Migrated the service provider for cost savings and improved service.
Refocused the organization (staffing levels and priorities) and the technical projects to be
accomplished to provide appropriate technical resource focus on true business needs and to
eliminate waste in projects that did not bring real value to the company.
Developed a 2-year IT strategy to improve systems stability and to enhance communications
connectivity within the company and outside the company to position for future business
automation projects.
Established e-mail, intranet applications, and connectivity to the Internet for the company.
Successfully managed the technical acquisition assimilation project of 9 new clinics.
HEALTHFIELD, INC.
Chief Information Officer
1996-1999
Responsible for the technology of a comprehensive home healthcare company

providing nursing services, pharmacy, and durable medical equipment (DME) sales and
services. The technical infrastructure was stabilized, the business applications were
enhanced, and a selection of an enterprise home healthcare product was implemented
to eliminate 7 legacy systems.

- 66 -
MEDAPHIS CORPORATION
1990-1996
Senior Vice President of Technology (1992 - 1996)
Vice President of Technology (1990 - 1992)
Directed the technology support, development and assimilation activities of all Medaphis
Physician Services Corporation technologies. Managed all staffing, planning, financial
management, due diligence and assimilation of new company technologies. IT budget grew
from $2.5 to $13.5 million as company revenues grew from $30 million to $550 million.
Managed an IT staff of more than 150, providing programming support, application research
and development, support desk, hardware & network support, and technical assimilations
for up to 25 different technologies utilized by more than 6,000 end users.
Restored technology credibility to the organization within six months of joining the company
by identifying key issues and organizing to address the appropriate business problems.
Developed and managed all technical support for significant growth of the business revenue
from $30 to $500 million in five years.
Conducted the technical due diligence on 35 companies with 43 separate technologies,
successfully eliminating over 20 acquired technologies.
Successfully focused on cost effective assimilations while maintaining staff stability that
protected the business during transitional change.
Successfully migrated the company's national print center and 80 percent of the
programming support from Richmond to Atlanta without disruption to the business.
Effectively reduced the programming and technical support costs from 7.7 percent of
revenue to 2.8 percent over 3 years while improving the delivery of services.
HBO & COMPANY, Atlanta, GA

1983-1990
Vice President of Systems (1989 - 1990)
Director or Support (1988)
Manager of IFAS Technical Support - Southeast (1986 - 1987)
Manager (1983 - 1986)
Directed the support and installation of all HBO product lines for the Eastern United States. Also
managed national application and technical support of HBO & Company's MEDPRO, IFAS, and
GALAXY legacy systems consisting of more than 200 systems.
Developed and implemented a successful employee and client migration plan from
multiple legacy systems to the companys newly announced STAR systems.
Improved client and employee satisfaction in an environment that had a national

challenge of a $2 million loss against $6 million in revenues contributing to increased
revenue and profit over and above company projections.
Reduced client accounts receivables over 60 days from $250,000 to under $10,000.
Managed the development and delivery of the first PC application for HBO & Company.
Improved the financial performance of all national products managed:

IFAS
- Improved profitability by $4 million on $6 million in revenue over 2 years.
GALAXY - Attained profitability for first time in its five year history.
MEDPRO - Improved profitability by 20% on $2.5 million in revenue.
- 67 -
BDS, INC
1981 - 1982
IBM
1976 - 1981
Marketing Representative (1980 - 1981)
IBM Systems Engineer (1976 - 1979)
EDUCATION
BS Accounting, 1976, University of Tennessee at Martin
Associate of Arts, 1974, Columbia State Community College
MILITARY
U.S. Marine Corps (1969 1973)

- 68 -
Appendix B
Sample CIO Job Description

Job Description
The Chief Information Officer (CIO) will provide technology vision and leadership for
developing and implementing information technology (IT) initiatives that improve cost
effectiveness and business development in a constantly changing, competitive
marketplace. The CIO will lead the company in planning and implementing enterprise
information systems to support both distributed and centralized business operations
and achieve more cost beneficial enterprise-wide IT operations.
Major Duties and Responsibilities
This position provides strategic and tactical planning, development, evaluation, and
coordination of the information and technology systems for the company. This position
is designed to ensure the continuous delivery and operation of integrated operations
and administrative information systems. The CIO is responsible for the management of
multiple information and communications systems and projects, including voice, data,
imaging, and office automation. The CIO reports to the CEO, CFO or Executive Board
of the company and supervises the organizations information systems staff.
The CIO is responsible for coordination, facilitation, and consultation with all company
management staff on information systems, communications, and business operation
systems initiatives. The CIO will ensure that the company is current with the information
systems standards set by company.
The CIO serves and participates proactively with other members of the companys
senior management team in developing and executing strategic plans to optimize the
use of information technology in support of company objectives. The CIO also
participates in policy and decision making at executive management level regarding
resource allocation and future direction and control of proposed information systems.
PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES
Enterprise-wide Planning
Participates as an integral and active member in the strategic planning process

of the company.
Develops, coordinates, guides and maintains IT systems strategic and

operational plans in support of the overall company mission and business
strategy. These plans define a vision for meeting current and future information
and technology needs for the company, while ensuring alignment and integration
of IT with the overall vision, mission, and values of the enterprise.
- 69 -
Develops and maintains enterprise systems architecture, defining standards and

protocols for data exchange, communications, software, and interconnection of
network information systems.
Leadership
Provides advice on evaluation, selection, implementation and maintenance of

information systems, ensuring appropriate investment in strategic and
operational systems. Negotiates all IT acquisition contracts, soliciting
involvement and participation of other management team members as
appropriate.
Provides responsive advice, counsel, education and service to the company

concerning IT issues and trends in the IT industry.
Communicates IT plans, policies and technology trends throughout the

organization, including management groups and professional staff.
Determines pertinent information required by management in making effective

decisions. Ensures that the gathering, processing, distribution and use of this
information occurs in a timely, accurate and cost effective manner through ongoing review and education programs at executive, management and user levels.
Promotes and oversees relationships between the companys IT resources and

external entities (e.g., government, vendors, researchers, auditors, and other
organizations).
Management and Oversight
Approves, coordinates, and controls all projects related to selection, acquisition,

development, and installation of major information systems for the company.
Develops and maintains an appropriate organizational structure capable of

supporting the information needs of operating entities through appropriate and
cost-effective information technology.
Develops and maintains corporate IT policies and standards relating to the

acquisition, implementation, and operation of information technology and
communication systems.
Develops and maintains an enterprise-wide data model and data dictionary.
Negotiates IT service level agreements with user organizations and monitors IT

systems performance to assure service levels are being met.
- 70 -
Researches and evaluates alternatives for the enhancement or re-engineering of

IT. Develops, coordinates and manages the incorporation of enhancements to
and re-engineering of company systems, in keeping with the needs and
objectives of the enterprise.
Provides quality service to end users in needs analysis, solution

recommendation, vendor selection, implementation, training, and post-installation
support.
Ensures that enterprise information systems operate according to internal

standards, external regulatory standards, and legal requirements.
Develops and enforces policy and procedures to ensure the protection of

enterprise IT assets and the integrity, security and privacy of information
entrusted to or maintained by the enterprise.
Develops and maintains an enterprise-wide business recovery plan to ensure

timely and effective restoration of IT services in the event of a disaster.
Human Resources Management
Responsible for the recruitment, development, motivation and retention of

assigned management and staff conforming to budgetary objectives and
personnel policies. This shall be accomplished through the consistent practice of
sound human resources concepts, thereby achieving teamwork, employee
security, mutual respect, maintenance of the highest level of professionalism and
a stake in the companys success.
Ensures appropriate training programs for the organization are in place to attract,
retain and develop the key personnel required to support information services.
Financial Management
Develops and maintains the annual operating and capital budgets for company
information and technology systems operations consistent with programmatic
plans and established financial guidelines. Responsible for monitoring IT
activities and costs as related to the overall utilization of resources required to
meet programmatic operational requirements.
Develops and maintains corporate policies and standards aimed at minimizing

costs related to the acquisition, implementation and operation of IT systems.
Maintains contact with IT suppliers and maintains knowledge of current

technology, equipment, prices and terms of agreements to minimize the
investment required to meet established service levels. Evaluates alternatives,
- 71 -
performs appropriate cost benefit analysis, and recommends solutions that

minimize costs commensurate with acceptable risks.
Reviews company hardware and software acquisition and maintenance

contracts, soliciting involvement and participation of other management team
members as appropriate. Develops, when possible, company master purchase or
lease agreements for hardware, software, maintenance and telecommunication
services.
QUALIFICATIONS
Education
Requires a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Business Administration or a
related field.
Experience
At least 10 years of progressive experience in managing functions and departments
dealing with information handling, work flow and systems. Three or more years of direct
management of a major IT operation is preferred. Two or more years of experience in
________ industry is essential, preferably in IT planning to support strategic business
goals. Experience should also include substantial exposure to both in-house and
shared or outsourced systems, multiple hardware platforms, and integrated information
and communications systems.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
Comprehensive knowledge of:
Business principles and techniques of administration, organization, and

management to include an in-depth understanding of the key business issues that
exist in the _____ industry. These include, but are not limited to, knowledge of
strategic and operational planning, personnel administration, federal, state and local
laws, marketing, financial and cost analysis.
Data processing methods and procedures, and computer software systems
Equipment and software characteristics of various computer systems and a general

understanding of system features and their integration capabilities
Systems design and development process, including requirements analysis,

feasibility studies, software design, programming, pilot testing, installation,
evaluation and operational management
Business process analysis and redesign
Applicable external regulatory requirements and their application to the IT area

- 72 -
Proven skills in:

Written and verbal communication
Negotiating with vendors, contractors, and others
Budget preparation and monitoring
Planning and organizing
Management and leadership
Interpersonal relationship building
Demonstrated ability to:
Relate to all levels of the user community
Be a team player that motivates and educates other team members
Plan, implement and support systems in a complex IT environment
Set and manage priorities
Comprehend complex, technical subjects
Translate technical language to lay audiences
Link and apply complex technologies to business strategies
Create and motivate behavior change

- 73 -
Appendix C
Technology Leader Skills/Experience Matrix
Technology Leadership
Skills / Experience Matrix

( Relative Value Scale for Leader Types )
Skill / Experience
CIO
Business Management
Business needs assessment
Strategic planning
Develop a technology vision to support company needs
Budgeting
Presentations to senior management & board members
Presentations to department heads
Technology initiative prioritization
Organizational development
Define an organization to support business objectives
Staffing
Staff focus
Training program to fill expertise gaps, build depth
Staff development and motivation
Performance planning and reviews
Career planning
Motivation
Infrastructure
Hardware knowledge
Network knowledge
Telecommunications
Network applications (E-mail, Intranet, fax server, etc.)
Data Center operations
Support Desk
Systems security
Systems recovery
Business and/or industry knowledge
Programming change management process
Backlog management & communication
Research and development
Software application support / Support Desk
Software release process
Project management
Growth Management
Anticipating, planning, and positioning for growth
New Company merger and acquisition (if required)
- 74 -
Technical
Infrastructure
Manager
Business
Applications
Manager
Notes

- 75 -
The Practical IT Manager GOLD Series of books and tools will

help you manage your IT organization better. The processes and
tools discussed in these publications are used by thousands of IT
managers around the world to achieve more success.
The series includes the following titles and more:
- IT Management-101: fundamentals to achieve more
- IT Assessment: the key to IT success
- IT Strategy: align your IT vision for business value
- IT Project Management: a practical approach
- IT Asset Management: tracking technology assets
- IT Organization: right-size your organization for success
- IT Staff Motivation and Development: build a world class team
- IT Budgeting: operational and capital budgeting made easy
- IT Due Diligence: merger & acquisition discovery process
- IT Assimilation: consolidating redundant technologies
- What To Look For in a CIO: get more value from your IT investment
Every aspiring IT manager will, without question, benefit from your work.
Bryn Thomas - Philadelphia, PA
I am so thrilled to find a resource that addresses my needs as an IT executive.
Ive been looking for something like this for years.
Charise Simpson - San Diego, CA
Your publications get to the heart of IT management and provide practical
examples not found in other books.
Dan Tankersley - Paducah, KY
The value of the materials is excellent and can be used by any manager in any
field, even outside of IT.
Kenneth Wakati - Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Mikes experiences offer valuable insights on how to build an effective IT
organization that can truly make a difference.
Judy Campbell - Austin, TX
MDE Enterprises, Inc.
helping IT managers of the world achieve more success


What To Look For in A CIO

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

What To Look For in A CIO

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Mike Siscos

Practical IT Manager GOLD Series

What To Look For

get more value from your IT investment

helping IT managers of the world

Copyright MDE Enterprises, Inc.

Practical IT Manager GOLD Series