Becoming CIO of a midmarket company requires awareness of both technical and business factors.When it comes to working one's way up to being the CIO
of a midmarket company, there is no single "right way" to tackle the task.
Whether one starts as a programmer and slowly builds business skills or
starts as a business analyst and learns technology skills on the way up doesn't
really matter. What matters, say CIOs who have made the climb, is ambition,
drive, instinct and flexibility.
Rod Hardin, CIO at Colorado Housing and
Finance Authority, started his career with a bachelor's degree in general
business. During college, he worked nights at a bank processing checks and
learning the banking business. Following graduation, the bank promoted him to business
analyst, which allowed him to experience how IT and operations worked together.
At the same time, he went back to school, earning an MBA with an emphasis in
technology.
Learning business first has stood Hardin in good stead throughout his career,
during which he has held six CIO-level
positions at both midmarket and enterprise-level banking or mortgage-related
institutions.
"I found it easier to transition that way because I understood the
business part and had the analytical inclination," Hardin said. "And
that's what I look for today in people I hire: a broad range of technical and
business skills."
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Lifelong techie Peter Kretzman came at it from a different angle, although
he also found a way to marry business and technology skills early on. Kretzman,
who recently left his position as CIO of firewall
and VPN appliances vendor WatchGuard Technologies, started working as a systems
developer at the age of 17 and was considered something of a hotshot. At the
same time, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English literature,
while continuing to work as a programmer.
"I grew to understand that the interesting stuff was the interaction
between business and technology, figuring out what needed to be done, how to
allocate the appropriate resources, and how to leverage myself and other
people," Kretzman said. "Once I figured that out, I moved up
reasonably quickly into supervision and then management and over the last 10
years into senior management."
Eventually, Kretzman and a friend decided to take a break and promote
themselves as "interim CIOs" to companies that either had just lost a
CIO or needed a boost. They did it, he said,
through networking and connections. "It was a great way to get a foot in
the door and get the experience companies want," he said.
Although Hardin and Kretzman approached the position of midmarket CIO
in very different ways, they share many similarities.
Both believe that broad knowledge of both business and technology is
critical. If you start from the technology side, it's critical to pull yourself
away from it and gain perspective, Kretzman said.
"A person who is more closely wedded to the technology will have much
greater trouble ascending to the ranks of executive," he said. "And
adopt the right attitude: IT is a service organization. You are there to serve
the business and the bottom line; you aren't there to do cool technology or
implement a system. That's really difficult for some IT people to grasp."
IT professionals with CIO aspirations
also must find a way to gain the softer skills, such as communication and
management. And don't forget financial acumen.
"An incredible gap I see with IT people is that they don't know or care
that much about how the business works, especially from a financial point of
view. What are the business drivers? What are the things that will determine
success or failure with initiatives? How is the business itself being measured?"
Kretzman said. "If you want a seat at the table, you have to be driven by
what other executives are driven by—financial performance."
Most importantly, you have to have a certain mindset to be a good midmarket CIO.
"CIOs at large companies tend to focus on vendor
relationships, employee issues and high-level executive issues, where midmarket
CIOs tend to focus more at the project or program level and work more closely
with business folks," Hardin said. "If you like to get involved at
the program and project level, a midmarket CIO is
a good thing to be."
