The CIO and CEO Relationship: CIO Perspective
To ensure that technology and business are aligned, the CEO and CIO roles must work together. How are CIOs feeling about their business relationship and are these relationships changing?
One minute insights:
- CIOs value the business relationship with their CEO and rate their respect, trust, communication and shared vision highly
- Most CIOs are feeling aligned with their CEO on business priorities
- Organizational structure challenges are a common barrier to strong CIO and CEO business relationships
- CIOs are actively strengthening their CEO relationships through knowledge sharing
- External events that impacted businesses over the past year have also strengthened these relationships
CIOs believe in the necessity of having a strong relationship with the CEO, and most are meeting that need
Respondents generally rated the respect, trust, communication and shared vision in their CEO relationship highly. About a third (34%) of respondents rate the respect in their CEO relationship as excellent. Shared vision shows the most room for improvement with nearly two-thirds (62%) of respondents rating this aspect as strong rather than excellent and 4% saying it is poor.
[The CIO and CEO] need to function as a single entity emulating business and technology as joint flavors of a single power center.
CIOs feel aligned with CEOs on business priorities, but many feel misaligned on talent management
Our interests are aligned, with digital transformation and AI being the two topics we will concentrate on.
[The] CEO does not always share my passion about IT importance.
While many have experienced challenges, CIOs are taking an active role in improving their relationship with the CEO
More than half (53%) of respondents have experienced organizational structure issues that impeded a strong CIO and CEO business relationship. Many have also faced limited agency to make strategic decisions (45%) and a lack of clarity on business priorities (44%).
56% of respondents are strengthening their relationship with the CEO by educating them on the value of the digital aspects of the business, and 48% are improving their own business knowledge.
This is an area where the person matters and the attitude of the person. Some relationships are unsalvageable whilst others can be worked on. It is important that they challenge each other and the relationship does not become too cozy.
CIO and CEO relationships have improved over the last year, especially due to external events impacting businesses
In the past year, most respondents’ relationship with their CEO has improved (67%) or stayed the same (28%).
42% of those whose relationships got stronger attribute this change mostly to external events impacting the business, while 37% point to digital transformation as the main catalyst.
CIO can be trusted and have a strong relationship with the CEO if he is able to answer to the needs and overcome the challenges the organization is encountering. CIO must be able to bring solutions to all aspects of the organization requirements.
As a CIO if one is able to translate IT needs in business language and vice versa, he gets CEO's support, furthermore by delivering IT projects in time as per CEO's vision, the TRUST factor increases between the two.
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