5 Ways CIOs Can Help Restore Growth

You have probably had the conversation about COVID, remarking how it has impacted us and the economy in so many ways. An article by Information Age mentioned that Australia has historically been "remarkable at commodities"; however, "we are not good at new things." According to CSIRO CEO Dr Larry Marshall, Australia has been at least ten years behind the US in digital. Still, Australia has accelerated at least five years in the last five months because of COVID.

Despite the demanding climate, many companies are using COVID-19 improvements to reset long-held behaviours, explore new opportunities, and reinvent their businesses. Furthermore, the article states that economic recovery for Australia will be led by investment, thus leading to job creation through retraining and reskilling into jobs that currently don't exist or have been thought of. Ultimately, these investments' two critical success factors will need to be assessed, namely, build business confidence and promote employment.

According to the 2020 Gartner CEO Survey, CEO expectations have changed this year as a result of the current economic climate, but development remains at the top. In 2021, one of the core levers that CEOs can use to recover and expand is technology. During his presentation at virtual Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo® 2020, Mark Raskino, Distinguished VP Analyst and Gartner Fellow said, "The majority of CEOs expect revenue levels to recover in 2021 or 2022."

What does this mean for CIOs, and how can they play their part in restoring growth that delivers a good profit margin?

In five ways, CIOs can support their CEOs in reaching their top goal.

1. Focus

The priorities of CEOs changed this year as a result of the current business climate, according to the 2020 Gartner CEO Survey, but progress remains strong. In 2021, one of the biggest levers that CEOs can use to progress and grow is technology. Despite the troublesome setting, many companies are using improvements made during COVID-19 to reset long-held habits, seek new opportunities, or reinvent their businesses.

In the past, the CIO was viewed as a reactionary "order-taking" division tasked with meeting the demands of various business units. Instead, CIOs should think about driving digital transformation, nurturing people, and rebuilding to help their organisations achieve their targets in 2021.

2. Rebuild

Create an internet of information with LOB leaders, business friends and advisors, and experience companions to solve current and potential crises and challenges. Dealing with technological debt incurred in the midst of the pandemic would loom over 70 percent of CIOs through 2023, triggering financial stress, inertial drag on IT agility, and "pressured march" cloud migrations. Faced with the need to respond quickly to rapidly changing business circumstances, many CIOs have sought to bypass traditional IT protocols in order to implement digital solutions quickly, often in a single day. It was inevitable to incur new technological debt, resulting in potential commitments to mitigate deficiencies.

Learn about your solution providers, personnel, resources, and goals in order to have customised technical options that promote unrestricted growth. Sixty-five percent of CIOs will use ecosystem, software, and technology management approaches focused on interoperability, versatility, scalability, portability, and timeliness by 2025.

3. Nurture and Empower People

To ensure the success of their company brand, executive leadership teams depend heavily on information technology. Many businesses had a digital transformation strategy prior to the crisis, but it was often a series of small-scale pilots with inadequate top-down coordination and corporate leadership, or it was not adequately connected to business goals. 

CIOs and CTOs have made valiant efforts to cope with spiralling new demands against tight deadlines since the start of lockdown. They've had to orchestrate a major and abrupt change to remote work for workers, using modern collaboration technologies in an effective and cybersecure manner.

They need to understand how a trust-based culture can help workers work and communicate more efficiently outside of the workplace. They've had to scale up digital platforms to satisfy customers while also solidifying their company's IT infrastructure during a period of substantial load growth.

Digital's value to consumers, vendors, and the entire economy has grown exponentially, and executives must accelerate their digitisation plans. Digital transitions can range from concentrating on people to overhauling technology and infrastructure, replacing legacy IT systems, and transitioning to the cloud. Personalization and digital marketing, end-to-end consumer journeys, digital supply chains, and digital shared services are only a few of the business results that many businesses are focusing on. However, the main emphasis should be on individuals, their attitudes, and the emerging modern working culture.

4. Smooth Acceleration

Create a web of knowledge with LOB leaders, industry colleagues and advisors, and experience collaborators to solve current and potential crises and challenges. By 2023, 70 percent of CIOs will be struggling with technological debt accumulated during the pandemic, causing financial stress, inertial drag on IT agility, and “pressured march” cloud migrations. Faced with the need to respond quickly to rapidly evolving market conditions, many CIOs have tried to circumvent conventional IT protocols in order to introduce digital solutions quickly, often in a single day. It was inevitable to incur new technological debt, resulting in potential commitments to mitigate deficiencies.

Raskino stated that clients have become more supportive of digital than in the past, that new experiences have become accessible, and that people are more open to change. According to the report, more CEOs are using the term "digital" to identify their goals. While almost everyone accepts that the cloud has arrived, 65 percent of CEOs spoke of accelerated digital business transformation. In Gartner's annual report, the top CEO priorities were accelerating digital business to help drive change. A parallel CIO survey shows that IT leaders have a "once in a lifetime" ability to fully impact the enterprise.

5. Empower

Even so, CIOs may be reluctant to cooperate with their competitors, but the fact is that many of these alliances have been fruitful for both parties. Unfortunately, the majority of the organization's executive management is still involved in discovering how IT can aid the company's financial recovery. Proposals for extracting value from emerging digital options and supporting digital business results are in high demand. That's according to Lily Haake, head of the CIO practice at recruiter Harvey Nash, who believes that CIOs are increasingly becoming COOs because technology underpins all operations. Jason Oliver, the University of Sussex's director of information technology, agrees.

If the enterprise's knowledge of the CIO's capabilities increases, so will the enterprise's awareness of the CIO's capabilities. According to a Deloitte and WSJ Intelligence report, 50% of CEOs believe the tech chief would be the most significant driver of business strategy in the future – a higher percentage than those who named the CFO, COO, or CMO as their high companion blended. Managing change, not only in workflows and processes but also in culture and employee actions, is rapidly becoming a key differentiator and job necessity for CIOs. Collaborate with line-of-business executives to "divide and conquer" technological debt by exploiting LOB builders and funding to improve IT capabilities.

In the current context of high volatility, increased risks, and business complexity, reconsider threat management approaches. Prepare for the transition from driven digital workers to hybrid digital/human workers to self-governing digital workers. By 2022, 65 percent of CIOs will digitally empower frontline staff, providing them with information, AI, and protection to improve their efficiency, adaptability, and engagement in the face of rapid changes.