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Staying the Course as a CIO
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The Wiley CIO series provides information, tools, and insights to IT executives and managers. The products in this series cover a wide range of topics that supply strategic and implementation guidance on the latest technology trends, leadership, and emerging best practices.
Titles in the Wiley CIO series include:
The Agile Architecture Revolution: How Cloud Computing, REST-Based SOA, and Mobile Computing Are Changing Enterprise IT by Jason Bloomberg
Big Data, Big Analytics: Emerging Business Intelligence and Analytic Trends for Today's Businesses by Michael Minelli, Michele Chambers, and Ambiga Dhiraj
The Chief Information Officer's Body of Knowledge: People, Process, and Technology by Dean Lane
CIO Best Practices: Enabling Strategic Value with Information Technology (Second Edition) by Joe Stenzel, Randy Betancourt, Gary Cokins, Alyssa Farrell, Bill Flemming, Michael H. Hugos, Jonathan Hujsak, and Karl Schubert
The CIO Playbook: Strategies and Best Practices for IT Leaders to Deliver Value by Nicholas R. Colisto
Enterprise Performance Management Done Right: An Operating System for Your Organization by Ron Dimon
Executive's Guide to Virtual Worlds: How Avatars Are Transforming Your Business and Your Brand by Lonnie Benson
IT Leadership Manual: Roadmap to Becoming a Trusted Business Partner by Alan R. Guibord
Managing Electronic Records: Methods, Best Practices, and Technologies by Robert F. Smallwood
On Top of the Cloud: How CIOs Leverage New Technologies to Drive Change and Build Value Across the Enterprise by Hunter Muller
Straight to the Top: CIO Leadership in a Mobile, Social, and Cloud-based World (Second Edition) by Gregory S. Smith
Strategic IT: Best Practices for Managers and Executives by Arthur M. Langer and Lyle Yorks
Transforming IT Culture: How to Use Social Intelligence, Human Factors, and Collaboration to Create an IT Department That Outperforms by Frank Wander
Unleashing the Power of IT: Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together by Dan Roberts
The U.S. Technology Skills Gap: What Every Technology Executive Must Know to Save America's Future by Gary J. Beach
Architecting the Cloud: Design Decisions for Cloud Computing Service Models (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) by Michael Kavis
Staying the Course as a CIO: How to overcome the trials and challenges of IT Leadership by Jonathan Mitchell
STAYING THE COURSE AS A CIO
HOW TO OVERCOME THE TRIALS AND CHALLENGES OF IT LEADERSHIP
Dr Jonathan M Mitchell
This edition first published 2015
© 2015 Jonathan Mitchell
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mitchell, Jonathan M., 1961–
Staying the course as a CIO: how to overcome the trials and challenges of IT leadership/
Dr. Jonathan M. Mitchell.
pages cm. – (The Wiley CIO series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-96887-1 (hardback)
1. Chief information officers. 2. Information technology – Management. I. Title.
HD30.2.M577 2015
658.4′038 – dc23
2014025612
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-118-96887-1 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-118-96884-0 (ebk)
ISBN 978-1-118-96886-4 (ebk)
Cover image: © Jonathan Mitchell
Cover design: Wiley
INTRODUCTION
Do you want to be a great IT leader? Why not? For those in corporate or public sector life, becoming a Chief Information Officer, a Senior Vice President or perhaps even a Chief Digital Officer in a large organisation is seen by many – quite rightly – to be the very pinnacle of achievement in the world of Information Technology. Today, an increasing number of IT leaders have become Board or Executive Team members in their companies. Almost all exert high levels of power and influence. However, the life expectancy of this corporate rainmaker is shockingly short. IT leaders often seem to enjoy a span no longer than a mayfly as they flutter away in the turbulent waters of the corporate pond. Few seem to stay the course for much longer than a couple of years and it is rare to find anyone making it to half of a decade or more. Some organisations even change their CIO every year. And most of the endings are not happy ones either. Very often something, or more commonly a whole bunch of somethings, goes horribly wrong and the reign of the noble IT leader comes to an abrupt and brutal end. In some cases the disaster takes the form of a slow-motion train wreck. With growing inevitability, it can be months before the inadvertent act of hara-kiri is finally completed and the inevitable mushroom cloud of dust and the smell of doom imperiously rise from