With papers such as Nicholas Carr’s “IT doesn’t matter,” there was a time not so long ago that media reports were circulating claims that “CIO” stood for “career is over.” While the doubts around the significance of IT have subsided, the role of the CIO has if anything gained in importance. With the need to manage growing con-sumerization, the surging cloud computing wave as well as the ever growing risk and threat landscape, CIOs are now being tasked to advise the business on how best to navigate these major changes while keeping the business on a safe path to-wards growth.
This trusted advisor role is where all IT leaders should aspire to but the path is far from easy as many of Hong Kong’s IT elite will testify.
In an effort to acknowledge the skills of this elite, three of Hong Kong’s IT lead-ers were recognized for their excellence at the first Hong Kong CIO Awards pro-gram organized by Computerworld Hong Kong and CIO Connect.
Joe Locandro, director of Group IT at CLP was named the overall “CIO of the Year” winner, while Sunny Lee from Hong Kong Jockey Club and Daniel Lai from MTRC both picked up awards for `Outstanding Achievement” as a CIO.
The first CIO awards program dedicated to Hong Kong IT leaders was created to assess individuals serving in the role of CIO, Head of IT, VP/director or any other role with the designated responsibility of leading the IT organization. All nominating companies had to be based in Hong Kong or Macau.
“The judges identified Joe as a seasoned IT professional who pushes the boundaries of innovation and people development,” said Nick Kirkland, Judging Committee Chairperson for the Hong Kong CIO Awards. “Joe demonstrates clear understanding that IT must be integrated fully into the business and his dedication to staff development is critical to the success of the company,” said Kirkland, who is also chief executive at CIO Connect, the peer network group that has built CIO communities in Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Awards Judging Committee was headed by Kirkland and made up of some of Hong Kong’s most respected current and former IT leaders. These included: Paul Chow, current Chairman of Cyber-port Hong Kong and former CEO at HK Exchange; YB Yeung, formerly at HSBC; Tom Sheppard, formerly at Cable and Wireless HKT, Raymond Wong, formerly at Immigration Department, HKSAR Government; Edward Nicol, formerly at Cathay Pacific; and Tim Sheedy, senior analyst & advisor to CIOs, Forrester.
Overall “CIO of the Year”
Joe Locandro, Director of the Group IT, CLP
Winner for “Outstanding Achievement”
JoeSunny Lee, Executive Director of IT, Hong Kong Jockey Clib
Daniel Lai, Head of IT, MTRC
For aspiring CIOs, charting the path to the top involves a matrix of skills and capabilities. CLP’s Locandro noted that it’s critical to observe what your start-point is before determining the required steps.
Much depends on the maturity of the organization and its view of IT. “If IT is still seen as a cost center and reports to finance on every matter then you need to work on earning credibility and trust,” said Locandro. “Start with getting the basics right – fix unreliable e-mail, network issues or other pain points.”
He added that if IT leaders find that users are regularly complaining about IT services then it’s impossible to gain any trust to focus on anything strategic. With credibility and trust in place, IT leaders can then be looked upon to give advice on business issues and sit in an executive leadership discussion as an equal.
But even with a strong IT capability and a leadership track record, IT leaders must earn that respect over time. “CIOs cannot just walk into an organization and receive that level of trust, even the best CIOs must deliver some major contribution to earn that trust,” Locandro noted.
He added that it is important to free time to build relationships with the key stakeholders, but stressed the need to manage time. “At this level you need to spend time with the right people, be focused on the right things and have the necessary headroom to think strategically,” noted Locandro.
There is only so much time in a CIO’s day and no-one can do everything so a good litmus test for aspiring CIOs is to ask how much time is being spent on what Locandro calls “business-as-usual” activities such as managing the data center, monitoring applications and networks.
Anyone that spends 70% – 80% of their time on these activities is likely to be operating at the low to mid level of IT leadership as they have insufficient time to be strategic. “The ones that are reducing this percentage are the ones creating the headspace to be effective at being innovative and strategic,” said Locandro.
Another issue to overcome for IT leaders is roadblocks and barriers in the path to being a strategic CIO. Drive, energy and passion are absolute musts in the makeup of a modern successful CIO. “Without the passion you will merely be a very good IT manager,” Locandro said. “There will be problems and there will be rejections but you have to push through.”
He noted that in Hong Kong he sees too many get dissuaded when they meet any push-back. It is the drive to succeed and the personal belief that allows the best to push through these barriers and have others follow them, Locandro stressed.
When looking to innovate or build strategic initiatives, often IT leaders can often fall into the trap of allowing the environment to determine their outlook. Locandro insists that each organization will operate differently and while some are highly structured and others operate more freely, each will have its own potential for innovation to occur.
“Good people can thrive in all environments and I believe that IT leaders in small and growing businesses have the greatest opportunity to do more with IT,” he said. “Resources will always be available if you can prove your value to the business.”
Locandro noted how it is vital to keep asking yourself the question of what value do you bring to the business? During mentorship discussions with up and coming IT managers, Locandro often asks: “What is the book value of the IT assets? What value do these IT assets generate for the business? What SLAs and corporate KPIs are they trying to meet?
“If they say their SLA is 99.99% up-time then that tells me exactly the type of IT leader that they are and that they are focusing on traditional IT operations management,” he said.
He demonstrated that for every dollar CLP spends in IT, the IT leadership can show how many dollars return in benefit is derived and how much of that is in cash and how much is non-cash benefits. “It is discussions in these terms plus knowledge of risk, business yield and enabling business change that give CIOs the required credibility in front of business.”