CIOs are often expected not just to tackle technology but also shoulder additional roles and responsibilities to drive their respective enterprises. How do they manage?
By Pankaj Maru
Given today’s business dynamics and economic environment, the role of CIOs is getting redefined, even transformed. Gone are the days when CIOs were just asked to take care of IT as a backend or support function.
With IT being looked upon as a tool to “enable business,” CIOs are expected to do much more. Their role can now involve being incharge of a business unit, human resource management and training, finance procurement, administration, and what have you.
And even as the wide spectrum of roles and functions requires indepth knowledge, along with handson experience to deliver the expected results, for an increasing number of enterprises, CIOs seem to be the “first” and “best choice” for these roles.
Not that such dual roles or additional responsibilities are without challenges. To understand and explore those challenges and changing roles and responsibilities, Express Computer takes a closer look at some of the Indian CIOs that are successfully performing “dual roles” in their respective organizations.
For instance, Valsad, Gujaratbased Rajat Sharma, who as President of IT has been the global CIO at Atul Limited for over four years, also heads the company’s IT arm, Atul Infotech Limited, as a Director (for about two years or so). On the CIO’s role change or additional responsibilities, Sharma says, “The role of CIO has evolved over the recent past wherein the expectations from the CIO have moved from being just a technology enabler to a business efficiency leader.”
“The CIO is now looked upon as an amalgamation of a technologist and a change agent — one who is expected to be the hub of the full circle of change management, right from the stage of initiating a change and catalyzing the change to delivering efficiencies through the same. This is in
addition to the conventional responsibilities of ICT strategy and information security, along with IT governance and compliance,” explains Sharma.
Earlier, Sharma, along with his IT unit, was solely responsible for meeting internal technology needs of India’s first private sector chemical manufacturing enterprise. But two years ago, the IT unit was spun off and shaped into a fullfledged IT services subsidiary, Atul Infotech Limited, that caters IT services to other customers and businesses in the market.
From a business strategy perspective, carving out a separate IT services company seems a wise decision for the board members and investors. But how challenging is it for the CIO to take on the additional responsibility for the P&L and revenue streams of the new entity?
Sharma feels that performing those dual roles is not a problem. “As the business sustenance of Atul Infotech is met with the delivery of valuefor money solutions to our customers while providing multiple levels of exposure to Atul Infotech’s team, I did not find any issue in catering to the dual role of a Group CIO and a company Director.”
Another case in point is Mumbai based Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), which hived off its IT arm three years ago into an IT services firm, Highbar Technologies Limited. Here,Satish Pendse is incharge of Highbar Technologies as President; in addition, he continues to be the Group CIO at HCC. However, unlike Sharma, Pendse considers the two roles very different from each other and says that they throw up contrasting challenges.
“The President role is quite different and, to begin with, one had to fully come out of the CIO hat and get into the President hat,” says Pendse. “The President role’s KPIs are orderbook, cashflow, turnover, PBT, etc. Given the economic uncertainty in the market, there is high pressure in terms of getting customers, managing expenses and cashoutflow; addressing gaps, if any, remains a big challenge all the time, especially at monthends.”
While decisions are to be taken by both CIOs and CEOs or business heads, Pendse emphasizes that making decisions as a President or a business head is quite different and has a substantial impact on the organization. This is particularly true in the areas of business deals, accepting or rejecting orders depending on the customers’ past payment records, and from a profitability stand point.
On the business side, Pendse feels that “expansion and growth” is another big challenge, considering the investments, P&L and income flows for the organization. “If some of these business decisions backfire, then servicing the debt taken to nurture the said plans puts a pressure on running the business.”
Though the two roles are quite different in nature, for Pendse the role of a business head is far too challenging in relative terms; yet, it’s extremely interesting due its non-monotonous nature.
“Every day brings up a different challenge; someday it’s about acquiring a customer, someday it’s about customer delivery, whereas on other occasions, it’s about collection. At times, you suddenly get a big order but a couple of critical teammembers have just resigned! The role always keeps you on your toes, which makes it interesting. The expansion challenge always takes you into a thinking mode,” Pendse elaborates.
Sanjeev Kumar, Group CIO and Group President – Business Excellence at Adhunik Group of Industries (which is into energy and mining) shares another perspective on the CIO’s multiple roles today. “These roles today are in quite a confused state, which means, depending on the organization, the role of the CIO is different. For example, when we talk of a fullfledged CIO, he is a part of the top management and board with very wide roles and responsibilities in terms of business functions and solutions, formulation of business strategy, and participation in M&As and business expansion —both organic and inorganic. Overall, he drives transformation and business excellence through technology.”
Kumar adds that while the CIO has a strong background in IT and brings clear market insights to the table, his role would vary, depending on the nature of business of the organization.
For Kumar, playing the role as President – Business Excellence at Adhunik successfully has its roots and links with being a CIO. “Business Excellence has various aspects, including finance, processes, resource management and operations. For example, if I have to deal with financial excellence, then I need to have indepth understanding of various data —including sales, customers, income, advances, profits, deals, etc. So, I need to analyze and integrate it with other business areas
and make decisions.”
Some CIOs also hold the responsibility of administration. Take, for instance, Boman Nakra of Mumbai based Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (formally known as Calyon Bank). With over 24 years of experience in the IT field, Nakra is equally up to the task when it comes to donning the hat of an Administrative Head.
However, Nakra says that such dual roles come with additional expectations and challenges. “Dual roles always come with additional responsibilities and higher expectations. In a job profile which is always user facing, meeting the expectations of the user is the biggest challenge. Picking up where your predecessor has left and building up on it is a big activity. Prioritization and time management is key here.”
Thankfully, says Nakra, many of the functions and responsibilities are likely to be same or overlapping, which in a way is good for a single person to handle. When such an overlap happens, he says, the approach to planning and execution becomes more holistic.
How they got the second hat
While there may be some differences in their viewpoints or approaches to dual roles, most CIOs we spoke to, have broken the mold and taken the additional responsibilities in their stride. But how did they end up where they are? Did the organizations push them for dual roles or were the CIOs proactive in embracing additional functions?
According to Sharma, his role of Director with Atul Infotech was a natural move through his experience as the CIO. “I have experienced that the role of a business head is much more exciting and enjoyable — as it adds another perspective to my knowledge and exposure while nurturing my entrepreneurship acumen.”
For Nakra of Credit Agricole, it was his performance as a CIO that was valued by the top management and he was entrusted with additional responsibility. “Based on the performance as CIO, the top management asked me to take on this additional responsibility as Head of Administration to standardize and streamline processes in this area,” he says.
“Both IT and Administration have their pros and cons and striking the right balance between the two excites me the most. It is constantly challenging,” Nakra adds.
When asked how such roles are taken or given, Pendse of Highbar Technologies had this to say, “When one works at a “C” level in a large organization for a considerable period and also builds credibility in the current role, he is no longer viewed only as a CIO/CFO/CHRO, etc., but is viewed as a “C” level executive who can contribute to the strategic objectives of the organization.”
According to Pendse, when the new IT venture (Highbar) was being conceptualized, the top management of HCC possibly gave specific importance to the entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated by the senior members of the IT team during those discussions.
Moreover, for Pendse, the new role has been a kind of fresh experience after being a CIO for over two decades. He says, “I have performed the CIO role for more than two decades in different industries such as FMCG, airlines, shipping, construction, travel, etc. I consider myself fortunate to have got the opportunities to lead very large IT initiatives, with large IT setups and diverse IT teams. After such an experience, I needed a “newness” which was provided by the new role to head the business.”
A similar situation arose in the case of Kumar of Adhunik Industries. Given his performance as CIO with the organization, the top management decided to hand over additional responsibilities of President Business Excellence.
Truly speaking, these CIOs have successfully proved their caliber and skills not only in IT but in several other functions beyond IT.
