A Matter of Scale

You are a successful mid-market CIO who is ready to apply your IT leadership talents on a larger stage. But before you start sending your resume to companies at the big end of town, you may want to ask yourself a critical question: How scalable are my skills?

As anyone who has implemented enterprise systems can tell you, if you ignore the scalability factor, your system won't last three years. Given that you probably want your next CIO role to last at least that long, it is helpful to understand what you need to think about before moving to a larger organization. To get that perspective, I spoke with CIOs who have taken this path and made a successful transition. They offer this advice.

Prepare for the size question. Before you worry about succeeding at a larger company, you should focus first on making it past the hiring committee, many of whose members may be concerned about your ability to scale. In November 2006, Todd Thompson left his role as CIO of $US1.7 billion airline JetBlue to assume the same job at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the $US6 billion hospitality company. As he expected, the interview team focused on his ability to succeed in a larger organization.

"My answer was that at JetBlue, where I grew a team of 70 to 200, I proved that I could scale very effectively," he says. "I also made the point that there are some complexities in an airline environment that make a $US2 billion company feel a lot bigger from an IT perspective."

CIO Jonathan Manis moved from Provena Health, an organization of six hospitals and 16 long-term care facilities, to Sutter Health, which, with 26 hospitals, is one of the US's largest non-profit health-care systems. Like Thompson, he also fielded questions about scale.

"I knew that if they didn't ask it they were thinking it, so I decided to address the issue head-on," he says. "I talked about my military experience in terms of geographical dispersion and span of control and related it to the Sutter role. They're thinking: 'How does this guy go from $US1 billion to $US7 billion?' I wanted to get it out on the table and out of the way."

The takeaway: Focus on points of relevance between your experience and the new role. Show how much more important these points are than sheer numbers.

Sharpen your influencing skills. In April 2006, Eric Goldfarb left his position as CIO of PRG-Schultz International, a $US300 million financial services firm, for the CIO role at BearingPoint, which has $US3.4 billion in annual revenue. Since BearingPoint is not the first large company Goldfarb has worked for, he has learned to observe differences in culture and management style and shift his focus accordingly.

A major part of the CIO's job in any company is to be aware of the technologies available in the market and to use them to improve efficiency or profitability. "In a smaller company, you walk in, talk to the owner, and get approval for a technology investment," says Goldfarb. "In a large company, where the magnitude of risk for every IT decision is much greater, you can no longer rely on a handshake to get project approval."

To win approval in such a setting, you may have to get support from your colleagues in sales and finance and even get a nod from a board member or two. That's easier to do when you've taken the time to build strong relationships with key stakeholders and decision makers.

"When you sit down with your CEO, the first thing he will ask will be who you talked to about the project," says Goldfarb. "You want to have a good answer. Or, better yet, have the CMO walk in as well and echo what you say."

The takeaway: In a smaller company, your relationship with your boss is the key to gaining approval of a big IT decision; in a larger company, you rely on your circle of influence.

Shorten your horizons. "It seems almost contradictory," says Goldfarb, "but larger, public companies tend to have a shorter-term planning horizon than smaller, privately owned companies." With shareholders hanging on every earnings report, he says, "the executive team spends more time on month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter planning" than on long-range goals. Your strategic planning efforts can no longer rely on ROI that is three years out; you will need to build shorter-term savings into your plans.

The takeaway: Shifting your focus from the forest to the trees can be a major adjustment and one worth anticipating before you start the job.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

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