Eric Sigurdson co-leads the Information Officers practice at Russell Reynolds Associates. In his nearly 20 years as a recruiter, he has diagnosed what sets successful IT leaders apart from those who do not succeed. in this interview, he notes that IT leaders must first understand the culture of the organization before attempting to transform the IT function. He also speaks about the rising trend of CIOs coming from other functional areas, the increased appreciation of IT from the rest of the company and the board, among several other topics.
(This is the 30th article in the CIO's First 100 Days series. To read past interviews with CIOs from Intel, J. Crew, Johnson & Johnson, Ecolab, and Microsoft, among many others, please visit this link. To read future articles in the series, please click the "Follow" link above.)
Peter High: Eric Sigurdson, let us begin with what separates successful CIOs from unsuccessful ones, especially in the first 100 days. What are some of the characteristics that set apart the stars from the also-rans?
Eric Sigurdson: I think human nature says that they want to invest time in listening, asking questions, evaluating the team, not jumping to any quick conclusions, but be viewed as someone who is open to ideas and trying to learn the culture of the organization. Of the CIOs I know, two years in as they reflect back on the first 100 days, almost unanimously they wish they had moved faster. So there must be a balance between those two reflecting motivations: taking your time, get behind them, do not feel like you have to move too quickly, and, by same token, do not let the grass grow under your feet. You have to move fast enough because you were brought in typically as a change agent. Frankly, if a CIO is placed by an executive search firm, there is a mandate for change almost always.
High: Out of curiosity, maybe these percentages are not readily available, off the top of your head, how often when they have gone to search is it succeeding a successful CIO—say someone who is retiring or has been promoted – versus a scenario where a transformation of one sort or another is necessary?
Sigurdson: I would say of the work that we do, 75 or 80 percent of the time it is the latter. The 20 to 25 percent where it is continuation is that stage where someone is stepping into a broader role trying to bring in an individual to take over responsibility for IT. Even if it is a successful, retiring CIO, without exception, the client will always say, “They were successful in the period we needed them. We now need somebody different.” Rarely have I heard a client say, “We want someone just like them.” Even when they were happy with person vacating the CIO role, they always want someone different.
High: As somebody who thinks a lot about CIOs and CTOs, but also delves a degree beneath to the reports, I am wondering what kinds of roles are you seeing as increasing in frequency of demand at the degree under the CIO? A CIO comes in what tend to be the kinds of positions that are growing or increasing in need as you do some of the searches that are a degree removed from the CIO?
Sigurdson: Clearly, no surprise, information security officers are definitely our highest growth under the CIO, and sometimes they do not report to the CIO. Sometimes we go out to recruit somebody and they will report to general counsel or to the head of infrastructure. Head of data analytics is another with great growth. On the flip side, it used to be you had a head of infrastructure and a head of applications. Those were the two sides of the CIO role with other, ancillary, sub-functions underneath them. We do not see the head of applications as much anymore. Head of PMO, head of enterprise architecture has probably become more of a strategic desire for CIOs to want to attract, and that person can take on a couple of different roles.
High: You mentioned that the vast majority of times when your team is called in on a search there is something new that is necessary, even if they are replacing somebody who is deemed successful. Especially since a good percentage are replacing somebody who has been less than successful, what are the reasons why CIOs are unsuccessful in your mind? As you are speaking with the hiring manager and they are talking about what needs to change, how have those factors changed or evolved over time, the extent to which they have, in your twenty years in executive search?
Sigurdson: I think the reasons would be the leadership team does not feel like they can understand what the CIO is saying. Conversely, the CIO may not understand what the business is asking for. IT is an issue of communication. There is a lack of being able to deliver on strategy that the CIO has set forth. I think that in some cases IT leaders aspire to having a strategic seat at the table, and they work so hard to position themselves as a strategic leader that sometimes they forget about the need to execute and deliver. They are so worried about making sure they are being respected that they lose sight of the tactical elements of the job, which frankly will keep them in the job. If you cannot execute and do not have strong leadership skills to drive delivery, it is all for naught.
I also see instances where there is a lack of trust from the team underneath the CIO. This often happens when the predecessor was loved, as well as where there is a fear of change. Building bonds with one’s team and engendering trust is essential.
High: In dealing with the hiring managers of CIOs, how much more sophisticated have they become in terms of knowing what they want and articulating what success looks like?
Sigurdson: Much more sophisticated. It has certainly gotten elevated because of how much money gets spent on IT from about thirty years ago. Clients and business users have gotten much more sophisticated around what enterprise systems are, what they cost, why the organization needs them, etc. Ten years ago they would not have known what that meant! Those were all subtle elements before enterprise systems brought them to life. I think the answer is a lot more sophisticated because we have become such a digital economy.
High: When you think of CIOs who you have placed who have been very successful in the early stages of what was some kind of transformation, can you provide an example or two of people who have set themselves and their team up particularly well and perhaps some of the details behind as to how?
Sigurdson: One example that comes to mind is Greg Meyers, who joined Motorola Solutions. Motorola hoped to have a stronger connection between the IT organization and business. Greg was a first time CIO, having been a deputy in the past.
One observation that I thought was very insightful on Greg’s part was that in analyzing his staff, he realized most were hired before 2000 at a time when Motorola’s revenues were in excess of $35-40 billion. After selling off all these different businesses, today Motorola generates roughly $6 billion. So the person who would have been attracted to a $40 billion found him or herself in a very different environment. Greg realized that he needed to bring in some fresh talent who were joining a $6 billion company with appropriate expectations based upon that. The team is gelling. All of a sudden you have new ideas coming together. He has done some creative things from a leadership planning standpoint to get them to work well together. And Greg Brown, the CEO, he is very pleased with this new sense of energy coming out of IT.
United Airlines, Linda Jojo, we recruited a year ago from Rogers Communications. No airline industry experience but great leadership background. She came in and established credibility with the leadership team, and was a good listener. The position did not report to the CEO until she was recruited. It had reported to the head of Marketing, Strategy and Technology. But with her recruitment they realized it needed to report to the CEO so they made the shift and turned it into an EVP role. Three months in, she realized she needed some new outside thinking. She recognized that having a technologist with airline experience would be invaluable. She also was keen to have someone with process excellence roots like hers. In her case, she had grown these skills at GE. We recruited the CTO from Aer Lingus who was the top technology leader there, bringing substantial airline knowledge. He had been at Virgin America with strong airline experience and relationships, and that has helped the IT team establish credibility early by bringing in fresh ideas and fresh leadership. We also recruited a former GE IT leader to report to Linda and support Airline Operations who had most recently been the CIO of the relocation company, Sirva. Though he had not worked directly with Linda in the past, they shared a common language from their experience at GE.
Linda recognized that she had a skills gap and acted accordingly.
High: How often do you recruit CIOs with nontraditional backgrounds?
Sigurdson: They are increasing because almost unlike most other functions, when you are going to go from succession you have three choices not two. Most functions, it is either promote from within or go to the outside. This has promote from within, go to the outside, or rotate. When was the last time you saw an HR executive take over Finance, or vice versa? The CIO role is often, frequently, used as a grooming ground for executives to get trained, get different perspectives.
High: Vanguard is one that comes to mind for me where the Chief Investment Officer was a former CIO. I believe two or three of these executives outside of IT were once CIOs. John Marcante, also a nontraditional, internal promotion.
Sigurdson: Rotations are increasing. Rarely does it happen in doing the search where it happens that they say, “I want a non-IT person to come in and transition into this role.” The point is, if you are going to rotate them in, at least have the strong culture fit. If you are going to do that, bring them from within the company and then backfill that position. Do not risk switching culture fit and functional. That decreases the odds of success.
High: How long do you recommend CIOs stay in role before they become interesting to you?
Sigurdson: As we look at who we will recruit, they have to be there four to five years before we will talk to them. You get one pass in a two-year post, but if it is a series of two year stints, we are not interested.
Peter High is President of Metis Strategy, a business and IT advisory firm. His latest book, Implementing World Class IT Strategy, has just been released by Wiley Press/Jossey-Bass. He is also the author of World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs. Peter moderates the Forum on World Class IT podcast series. Follow him on Twitter @WorldClassIT.
