Dr. Pankaj Setia on the challenges that will redefine CIOs’ careers
Dr Setia, also the chairperson of the centre for digital transformation at the business school, teaches graduate-level courses on the leadership of digital organizations, strategic management of digital innovations, and digital transformation. He has previously taught for many years at Michigan State University and the University of Arkansas in the US.
According to Dr Setia, as digital strategy and models are becoming crucial for an organization’s survival and growth, the boundaries between IT and business leadership are also getting blurred. He feels “in these present contexts, CIOs must reflect on their role deeply because, going forward, they may have to provide vision, guidance, strategies, foresight, and entrepreneurial energy to the enterprise.”
In a conversation with CIO.com, Dr Setia throws more light on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of IT leaders.
Inadequate budgets, silos, and the fear of taking risks are the biggest roadblocks for going digital. How should CIOs tackle each of these to ensure smooth and effective digital transformation?
Dr Setia: Indeed, these are three crucial challenges that CIOs must overcome. First, a risk-averse culture may be addressed through a two-pronged approach. First, CIOs must champion training and engagement of employees, to create a digital mindset and enhance understanding of the digital transformation being undertaken. It is imperative that the employees are excited about the transformation. Over the last few years, I have been engaged in teaching and training them, and I have seen remarkable shifts in the mindset of employees and executives alike, including doctors, civil servants, engineers, C-suite executives, and other top management team members. A second step for CIOs is to work toward getting buy-in from top management. For CIOs to get desired results, the board and top management team (TMT) must actively champion digital transformation initiatives. Many examples from the corporate world underline the role of top leadership in engaging and motivating employee teams.
Second, overcoming the barriers due to siloed strategy is a complex endeavor. It is not always easy to overcome these, as professional management relies on specialization in a functional domain (e.g., marketing, finance, human resources, etc.). However, because digital transformation inherently spans functional domains, siloed strategies — that emphasize super specialization — are not optimal. Therefore, CIOs should look to create cross-functional teams. They should also think about innovative project-based (or product-based) management approaches, where appropriate. To achieve project (or product) goals, these approaches incentivize managers to act collectively. The championing by TMT is again crucial in these endeavors.
