CIOs should adopt enterprise-level perspective: IBM India CIO Study

Mumbai: IBM India today announced the results of "India CIO Study," part of the Global CEO Study that the company announced in September 2006. The study, a result of personal interactions with over 44 leaders based in India, is aimed at bridging the chasm between business and IT besides enhancing the innovative agility amongst CIO's in India.

The report highlighted an alarming number of CEO's in India, nearly 86% of the ones interviewed, rating 'business and technology integration' to be of great importance and only 52% of the above feeling their organizations to be integrated enough.

The key findings of the India CIO Study highlighted that:
1. Deep business model innovation is critical to creating new and differing value for an organization;

2. Innovation can be ignited by business and technology integration: Technology must be linked to business and marketing insights in order to effectively enable and drive innovation.

3. External collaboration is indispensable: Ssuccessful collaboration among employee and internal organizations is just one consideration - partnering outside the organization results in higher revenue growth and innovation solutions

Emphasising the need for CIO's in India to play an integral role in innovation initiatives, Nipun Mehrotra, director, IBM Global Technology Services, India, said, "After years of cost-cutting and efficiency campaigns, business leaders in companies of every size and across the industry spectrum are refocused on top-line growth - and they're seeing innovation as the means to achieve it." He further added that "the role of the CIO should be focused on establishing the right infrastructure, culture and climate for business model innovation. CIOs should lead by example and make the IT organization a role model for the rest of the organization."

The study also stated the need for CIOs to become customer-centric and a credible business partner for CEO's by creating a flexible, responsive infrastructure that is better equipped to answer the needs of an innovative organization. It further stressed that CIOs should be proactive in creating deep partnerships and forming alliances that extend beyond traditional boundaries. They need to help create a culture and climate that encourage innovation and reward innovative thinking and the results achieved.

According to the IBM India CIO study, CIOs in India need to be a business executive first and a technologist second. They need to close the gap between business and IT by building the hybrid skill sets that enable IT professionals to understand the needs of the business. They need to promote and become part of a new governance model where responsibility for business and IT is shared by business and IT leaders. Taking this point further, Mehrotra said, "CEOs know that the success of their organization's innovation efforts isn't just about aligning business and IT; today it's about being totally in sync and driving business value together."

The study confirmed that the role of a CIO in India today is of a critical decision-maker when it comes to using technology to address the innovation challenges and opportunities for the business. It reinforces the role of the CIO - that they can enable and increase the innovative agility of the organization and drive the business forward.

Early this year, IBM announced the Global CEO study 2006 which was the result of a comprehensive survey covering 765 CEOs, business executives and public sector leaders on the subject of innovation, out of which 44 were India leaders from various verticals of business, private and public . The sizeable and diverse survey population provided IBM with a wide array of perspectives and ideas, as well as substantial opportunities for analysis.

Highlights of the 2006 CEO study

• 65% of the world's top corporate CEOs (including 44 leaders from India) declared that due to pressures from competitive and market forces, they plan to radically change their companies in the next two years
• More than 80% of CEOs stated that their organisations have not been very successful at managing change in the past
• 76% of all CEOs ranked business partnerships and collaboration as top sources for new ideas - but only half of the CEOs surveyed believed their organizations were collaborating beyond a moderate level
• Only 14% of CEOs ranked internal R&D as a source for new ideas
• CEOs said the most significant sources of innovative ideas came from employees stated 41%, business partners 38% and customers, 36%. This means two of the three most significant sources of innovative ideas now lie outside of the organisation
• Approximately one-third of (CEOs) innovation resources are now targeted at business model innovation - innovation in the structure and or financial model of the business.
• 76% of CEOs say that collaboration with outside sources is critical, only 51% say their organisations currently collaborate extensively.
• In emerging markets like India, 73% of CEOs are collaborating, compared to only 47% in mature markets.
• Nearly 80 percent of the CEOs interviewed rated business and technology integration of great importance. But, as was the case with collaboration, CEOs have a major "integration gap" - only half are executing at that level.