The Title of CIO Could Be The Problem

Welcome to our Friday WRAP – one thought-provoking idea to think about over the weekend.

This weeks thought comes from a recent blog at Harvard Business Review  about the impact of titles and department names.  Professor Robert Plant, from University of Miami School of Business Administration, wrote a blog titled IT Has Finally Cracked the C-Suite.  In it he shares a point that CIOs have split into two groups: Those who are driving value and those who are still trapped inside the data center.  He continues by suggesting that “With the cloud, business units can take responsibility for their own technology” and that this frees executives from many of the issues that their service role entailed.

He continues by pointing out that the title used for this new role makes a difference, using the case of Chief Business Technology Officer (CBTO) Steve Peltzman at Forrester Research as an example.

To those who argue that titles are meaningless, he (Peltzman) says: “As soon as I renamed my department BT and my title CBTO, it did a lot of things: It signaled to the company who we were and what we were focused on. It helped us recruit and retain our own staff because they were more interested in it.”

What is the title of your department?  How would a change in title and department name impact your ability to focus your time and energy on strategic business issues?

That’s a WRAP! Have a great weekend.