The roles of CEOs and CFOs are fairly well-defined, but CIOs operate in
a murkier territory.
One reason is that chief information officers come to the job without
the training and tools to play the "power politics" of the executive
suite, says Paul Strassmann, a prominent technology consultant.
Traditionally, CIOs developed their main expertise in computers. That's
meant tasks such as managing software upgrades, handling network
security and consolidating servers to save costs.
"Although many are quite good at it, that is not the play anymore that
entitles you to be a CIO," Mr. Strassmann said last week, speaking at a
University of North Texas seminar in Dallas for technology managers.
Mr. Strassmann, 74, said a CIO needs to understand the business
priorities of the chief executive officer and the board, and to operate
at the same level as a chief financial officer.
"When you play the corporate game or the government game, the only thing
that matters is the fleeting moment, once or twice a year, when a small
group sits around the table and the pie is divvied up," he said. "If
you're not there, you're not in the game."
Based in New Canaan, Conn., Mr. Strassmann provides consulting services
to some of the largest U.S. corporations, including AT&T Corp.,
Citicorp, General Electric Co. and General Motors Corp.
As a lecturer, his message is stern and sometimes caustic, but it comes
with a measure of empathy from a guy who's survived his share of techie
nightmares.
Mr. Strassmann has had an extensive career in information technology.
Through the 1960s and most of the '70s, he held top corporate posts at
Kraft Foods Inc. and Xerox Corp.
He was responsible for a major IT cost-reduction program for the
Department of Defense in the early 1990s, and, since last year, has been
acting chief information executive at the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
Mr. Strassmann also serves as a faculty fellow at UNT's Information
Systems Research Center in Denton.
"His simple message for CIOs is they need to understand their business
and communicate in business terms to business people or else whatever
they do will be irrelevant," said Dr. Leon Kappelman, a UNT professor
and the director of the research center.
"IT is about managing technology for the good of the enterprise," Dr.
Kappelman said. "If you're just making assumptions about what's good for
the enterprise, chances are they're not the right assumptions."
'One set of rules'
Mr. Strassmann says CIOs need to evolve from in-house geeks to corporate
strategists, following the same path CFOs took from their role as bean
counters.
"My political advice to you is there's one set of rules – CFO rules," he
said. "You have to play by CFO rules. ... And the game for IT in the
21st century is this: If you don't have money for strategic investment,
you're not worth a damn."
With the tech bust in its third year, this may not seem like the best
time for the IT people to seek more clout.
But Mr. Strassmann's point is that technology has never been more
important to business, often the key to driving down transaction costs,
improving customer service and, ultimately, boosting the bottom line.
Why is Wal-Mart Stores Inc. such a retailing powerhouse, while Kmart
Corp. struggles through its emergence from bankruptcy proceedings? Mr.
Strassmann points to productivity issues directly related to technology.
"You must understand you all have the wrong education," Mr. Strassmann
told the technology managers. "As CIO, you are the custodian of
knowledge capital."
Recommended reading
So what kind of training does he recommend?
Mr. Strassmann cited The Federalist Papers, the set of essays published
in 1788 to gain popular support for a proposed U.S. Constitution, as
required reading for CIOs.
"It's one of the great architectural documents," he said. "It trains
people to understand the bargaining and negotiating that takes place.
You have factions, like the political parties. You have the Macintosh
party. Go ahead, try to pry that Mac out of their cold, dead hands."
The session – a lashing of sorts – lasted several hours.
As it wound down into lunch, one of the tech managers asked, "So who
does it right?"
Mr. Strassmann told a story about how Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill
Gates visited him at the Pentagon. After meeting for more than two
hours, they headed to lunch in the cafeteria. Mr. Gates ordered a
hamburger. Then, realizing he didn't have any money, he asked Mr.
Strassmann to pay.
"The moral of the story is this guy wins all the time," Mr. Strassmann
said. "Bill Gates is a master. He is a professional poker player."
E-mail agoldstein@dallasnews.com
