Anyone who's ever worked with me as CIO or in some of my other IT leadership roles has heard my position on this- many times. "There are no customers inside the company. The customers are "out there"! Chuck's post is quite thoughtful and has some very useful points to include in your operating style. The point that the customer for IT is the business is mistaken. In fact, one of the things that consistently gets CIO's shown the door is a failure to be focused on the customer, on driving revenue. That doesn't mean you aren't focused as well on suppliers, employees and other stakeholders but it's all in the context of a partnership with the business.
As an aside for those who've asked about the new role I've taken on with BTM Corporation, I am going to be even more focused on working with CxO's, including the CIO, to help take this business/IT partnership to a new level- to move from aligning the business and technology to converging business and technology. We move from "Information Technology" to "Business Technology". That's a topic for another post.
I completely agree with Chuck's point that customers and revenue are not solely the CIO's role and responsibility. Instead the CIO works in tandem with the business to focus every effort squarely on the customer. The failure to do so is a prime reason why CIO's struggle for the mythical "seat at the table". In fact, in many cases a CIO vacancy (i.e. "left to explore other opportunities") is the result of a lack of vision and drive to help create and retain customers.
In my mind, even projects to fix the plumbing are there to better serve customers and should be expressed that way. If you can't define a project in business impact, then you aren't ready to ask for the resources to accomplish it.
Whom Do We Serve? « The Effective CIO: ""
Posts
8 comments:
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and post a reply! This kind of IT executive interaction on the web is too rare, and it's fun to be a part of it!
Now, on to the arguing :-)
I suspect we are more in agreement than not, but it depends on the definition of "customer." From my viewpoint, a customer is someone to whom I directly provide a specific service: tools, systems, process re-engineering, whatever. Generally, those people use the provided service to serve an external customer in some way. From their perspective, I am a service provider and the customer is someone who actually gives us money for our products.
I don't create tools and services in a vacuum. To be successful, I must be tightly partnered with my customers to understand what they need to serve their customers. Together, we drive revenue and become successful. I cannot know, as well as they do, what our external customers need. They cannot know, as well as I do, how to build the tools and systems to meet those needs. It is only when we partner that we jointly excel.
I completely agree that a CIO that ignores those external customer demands will fail. But I'll also contend that a CIO that focuses solely on those external customer needs will fail as well. We have to stay atop both to excel.
IT is often the first link in a chain of service providers that ultimately serve an external, paying customer. I provide services to HR, which in turn serves the line organizations, which in turn create products that the salespeople sell. At each link, there is a provider and a customer. I wonder who HR, another service organization, thinks of as their customer?
In the end, we are playing a game of semantics. You can point to any link in that chain and declare it a "customer." Regardless, unless we understand and partner with every link in the chain, we will fail as CIOs.
Thanks again for driving a good conversation!
Chuck
I agree that too often the social media toolset isn't used for fostering valuable dialog and it seems such a wasted opportunity! Thanks for being willing to write and explore the topic further.
Your focus on being a strong, vital partner is common ground and you won't get any argument for me. If you can't partner, you can't move on to the more "mature" roles that the company needs and wants from its Technology leadership team.
I think the key for me is that too many IT organizations get confused about their prime directive. Calling business partners inside the company customers muddies the waters too much. It creates a psychological barrier to being able to provide critical thinking about business requests which of necessity must sometimes result in telling the folks "NO!" In the nicest possible way, of course.
The ideal situation and one we should be creating has an emphasis on Technology being an active, aggressive even, full-fledged partner with every other part of the business in creating, serving, retaining customers- in effect helping to drive revenue. If I'm part of an internal supply chain, I'm unlikely to see myself in that position of continuously seeking to grow the business. As a member of the Executive Committee, with a seat at the table (hate that phrase but it's the best metaphor I can come up with right now) I'm a business person first with the same goals and focus as anyone else. I just happen to run the Technology function.
In the end, no other function has needlessly gone so far out of it's way to put itself in a support role as IT. What's needed now and going forward is to move from supporting bit-player to leading character. Not THE leading character but a vital, articulate, customer-focused one.
When we do- both the CIO and the organizations they lead- we will be seen as strategic and a vital contributor to growing the revenue and profit of the company.
One suggestion to continue to refine the definition is to simply ask your Board of Directors (or equivalent for public sector CIOs) for what they want to see from IT. There are going to be fewer and fewer cases where IT is expected to be led rather than lead.
We might just want to think about how to turn this into a webinar to create a real-time discussion on the topic! It's a rich vein to mine!
Let me be the first to agree with BOTH of you, and I agree on the high quality of the dialog as well.
Chuck, you articulately express the critical nature of forming partnerships with other business entities that use IT's services. I've seen, in fact, IT organizations often fail when they have gotten away from this "service mentality", as I call it, and just call all the shots they can themselves (e.g., on project priorities), dismissing the need for consulting elsewhere in the company about what's important.
Patrick, I also agree totally with the need for IT to be regarded as what I refer to as an "equal partner at the table," NOT just an "order taker" (as in, "OK, Mr. Customer, do you want fries with that?"). What I referred to as "political correctness" of the 90s, which is when I remember this focus on the internal customer began, can get out of hand, to the point where IT isn't regarded as an equal partner. You're right, in that (taken too far) it puts IT into a pure support role, which is what I dismissively call "Scotty in the engine room," rather than being considered a strategic contributor.
Other than relatively minor semantic nuances, it does seem that all three of us have basically the same very healthy perspective on IT needing to interact with the business in both service and leadership capacities. Do you agree?
Regards, Peter Kretzman
Let's say that I also agree with all 3 of you. My take is that you need to look at the whole thing from 2 perspectives:
a) the IT organization - its staff and services; and
b) the IT leadership - its CIO and his/her office.
As a service organization, IT should consider all customers, internal or external, as real customers. Neither are better or worse than the other in terms of needs, requirements, expectations, etc.
As an IT leader, the CIO is part of the executive team. If by playing this leadership role, the CIO offends or contradicts another CxO, so be it. They are partners, not customers.
Hi Long. You've added a perspective which enhances the picture I see being shaped here. Synthesizing viewpoints and balancing opposing needs is the hallmark of the successful CIO, is it not?
As Chuck pointed out there's too few real opportunities for leaders to discuss amongst themselves what causes us grief. If we are going to continue to improve our success ratio, which a variety of surveys and anecdotal evidence says in the 50% to 60% range, then there must be this kind of open discussion.
Internal/external, strategic partner/strategic customer. These ideas/definitions change with the market place which changes our focus over time. If you are providing the proper service for the "customer", regardless of where they, you will win because the business will win. The CxO that understands the business need will watch the ebb and flow of the business and will adjust accordingly. We must build standards in order to maximize the use of the tools produced, but must always be looking for how to change. Where I see most CxOs having problem is that they can't do both well. They struggle with how to develop standards for maximum efficiency while also looking at how to change what they just put in place.
The other item alluded to is who knows the customer. Most CxOs stay within the confines of the business. The sales and account teams in conjunction with some form of customer service will "know" the customer. However, I believe that the CxO must spend some time in front of the strategic customers (internal/external) on a regular basis. The CxO provides the sales/account team a level of confidence, credibility, and assistance that will, in many cases, make or break a relationship. The tools we produce are great, but the relationship with the customer is King. I'm always curious to see how many CxOs actually visit customers in order to better understand what they are being asked to do. I can't tell you the number of times that my visit to a customer site has helped to make or break a deal. What do you think?
I think you're spot on Wayne, particularly when it comes to visiting the customers. Where possible, particularly in manufacturing and supply chain businesses, building a relationship with our peers in IT can pay big dividends.
In the book "The Real Business of IT" (highly recommended) Hunter and Westerman advice that treating your colleagues and internal departments as customer is a big mistake. Indeed, it is called a trap.
They think that you cannot argue with a real customer, but you can really partner with a colleague to find the best solution not for them (the colleague), but for the real, ultimate customer.
I think I like that line of thinking :-)
Thanks for the insightful debate.
Post a Comment