CIOs can become corporate warriors
In ancient tribal culture, warriors were considered to be in a class of their own. As defenders, they protected society and helped people in the day to day. That's why CIOs need to take the mantle and become the warriors of the workplace.
The problem is that CIOs aren't given the authority to manage information in the right way.
To do this, they need vision beyond the IT department. The information they are tasked with managing is an asset used throughout the whole business, not just in IT. By restricting it to only a small area of the organisation, everyone loses out.
It becomes even more important to have a champion of information management when we consider that these assets are becoming the most valuable an organisation has. Quick delivery of accurate information is now a cornerstone of increasing workplace productivity, improving compliance, managing risk, increasing revenue, improving productivity, and much, much more.
Warriors of the workplace
The problem is that CIOs aren't given the authority to manage information in the right way – they have neither authority nor the ability to delegate tasks, meaning that for the majority of businesses, there's no such thing as a CIO.
And there should be. According to information from Egon Zehnder, who used research from National Association of Corporate Directors, more than half of surveyed business leaders don't receive enough information to oversee the IT arm of their business.
It's not particularly warrior-like that CIOs aren't finding themselves and their valuable insights represented in the boardroom, but that's not exactly their fault. Directors need to equip their corporate champions with the tools for the job, in terms of authority and the ability to delegate responsibility.
Only then can an information management strategy come to life, with a leader at the helm and with a greater chance of success.
Finding information management success
Research from Ventana shows that 43 per cent of surveyed organisations have taken steps to create data governance, quality, integration, virtualization and master data management over the past two years.
However, only one-fifth completed their projects. The most quoted reasons were inadequate staffing (68 per cent), a limited budget (63 per cent) and a lack of training and skills (59 per cent). They're worrying figures, and ones that business leaders will want to reverse in today's information-led environment.
So, what can be done? Information management needs to start from the ground up with revitalised business governance. There needs to be a fresh understanding of what the business does, what its goals are and how it can achieve them through utilising its Information Assets.
From there, we should see empowered CIOs standing out as the warriors they're meant to be.
