Talking tech at the InX Birmingham CIO dinner
Our recent CIO dinner in Birmingham brought technology leaders together to talk about the latest trends in tech. Dan Manton, associate partner for InX, shares his thoughts on an eventful discussion.
From the many CIO roundtable events I’ve been part of over the last decade, I’ve learned that great things happen when we gather likeminded individuals in a room to talk about the things they care about. The latest came last month, when InX hosted a roundtable dinner for the CIO community in Birmingham.
There was plenty of agreement (and debate!) as we talked about the insights from InX’s board technology survey, The View from the Top, over a wonderful meal at Marco Pierre White. InX created this content in response to consistent feedback from our networks that technology leaders are not only interested in technology itself, but also what their peers on the board think about it. Here are the key themes and how the technology leaders we spoke to are navigating the current tech landscape.
Insight 1 – The prominence of the technology leader
In my day to day role engaging with technology leaders, I’m often asked what ‘titles’ best represent the tech leader today. We have seen many over the years, such as CTO, CDIO and CTIO, and the titles seem to change quickly as they take on more responsibility or their areas of focus change. The CIO title is still the most common for those at the top of the tech function and most importantly, over two-thirds of the companies we surveyed have a technology leader on the board.
As you can imagine, we were reminded of the days of technology not having a place at the top table and the long road we’ve been on to get to where we are today. Many around the table have walked this difficult road and it’s great to see the CIO not only having such a prominence in technology, but also embracing a wider remit that includes P&L ownership, business performance and people development.
Insight 2 – The responsive (but not proactive) technology leader
A more sobering fact for the table to digest was that CIOs lack the proactivity boards seem to be craving, such as pre-empting requests and foreseeing challenges in the road ahead. As we know, the future is unpredictable (any bets on a pandemic in early 2020?) so this is one of the most difficult elements of the role to get right, with only 27% of non-tech leaders thinking that their technology counterparts are ahead of the curve.
However, there are many ways of fixing this, such as aligning closer to the business strategy, focusing technology on generating ROI and using newer technology to influence customer behaviour, all of which allow for a future focused CIO who supports long term business objectives. The great news is that boards do have confidence in technology leaders in a crisis, and appreciate their responsiveness to challenging environments.
Insight 3 – The commercial innovator
As mentioned in other insights, the role of the technology leader has changed significantly over the years. The tech leader is transitioning from a corporate individual focusing on robust systems, secure infrastructure and reliability, to a more rounded, commercial professional focusing on how we engage customers more effectively, reach new markets and deliver a better product.
The good news is that only 7% of boards are prioritising cutting investment for technology, which shows that many organisations are seeing ROI from technology. No doubt that in a post-Covid world, boards will be looking for commercially astute and innovative CIOs to drive business growth, so it’s important CIOs have this in their core skill set.
Insight 4 – Diversity’s getting there, but still needs work
Diversity has been at the forefront of hiring in technology for a number of years, but it’s making slow progress. 67% say that gender is the diversity characteristic they are most focused on within their teams, with ethnicity, physical ability and neurodivergence also key areas of focus. This is not a surprise; with the lack of diversity in the room, it was very apparent we all need to do more across all areas. Interestingly only 23% of tech leaders are happy with diversity within their teams as opposed to 27% of boards. I think this shows that technology leaders are very much aware that we are not there yet.
Insight 5 – Visionary vs practical
There’s a big difference between what technology leaders think the board’s priorities are, and what the board’s actual priorities are. This sparked a bit of debate round the table! If you ask CIOs what’s important to the board they will say cyber security, corporate technology, customer facing technology, data science and product creation. If you speak to the board, they think artificial intelligence should be the priority. ‘The rise of ChatGPT AGAIN’ I hear you say!
The board’s view is that CIOs have things like cyber in control. They have the least confidence in CIOs creating revenue generating products and want to hear more about AI and VR, so get your futuristic lens on and think creatively about how you can innovate! We did address the reality of the world we live in, where salespeople get the ear of the CEO/COO with a ‘revolutionary product’ and CIOs spend a considerable amount of time talking them down. The ‘sexy’ stuff always makes the headlines but it’s useless if there is no need for it.
Insight 6 – The art of flexible working
‘Leading people in a remote world is an art, not a science’ is one quote that stuck with me. Technology not only allows people to work from anywhere but also cultivates a flexible culture within the internal technology team. Only 4% of tech leaders are working four or five days a week in the office and 96% of tech teams are working a hybrid or fully remote week. This is often different to other departments but with talent so scarce in technology, you can see why hybrid/remote working is so popular.
Something many of our guests had in common was the challenge of hiring software engineers in today’s marketplace. If you want the best, you have to offer what they want! With some organisations reluctant to pay a premium for people at the start of their careers, this debate will continue for a long time to come.
Insight 7 – Desperately seeking data
The most in demand skill sets are data science/analytics (51%) followed by cyber (44%) and engineering (40%), which won’t be surprising if you have been trying to hire these skills in the past 18 months. Data is the lifeblood of our businesses nowadays and people pay a premium to extract it, model it and use it effectively. In conjunction with the customer facing elements of the role, data gives technology leaders a platform to generate ROI. It’s no surprise that it’s so sought after.
Thanks to all the tech leaders who came along and made it a great evening. Hopefully everyone went away with some thoughts to build on. Thought leadership is in our DNA here at InX and the feeling of being part of a community of people who can learn from one another helps us all grow and increase our understanding. Please get in touch with me to chat about attending future CIO dinners.