Editor's Blog: How a CIO can get noticed by the CEO

I had an interesting discussion over coffee the other week. The subject: how a CIO should act to gain the attention and the interest of the board.

Of course, spilling all the company data by leaving an unencrypted laptop in the pub or setting the sprinklers off in the server room while having a cheeky smoke will get you noticed. But we were thinking of more subtle options.

It's not as easy as some CIOs might like to think. One of the people I was talking to was Cathy Holley from headhunters Boyden Global Executive Search who pointed out that many CIOs are interested in how they can be perceived better - and not as a technical person. There's an inner circle on the board and they are the outsider who wants to break in.

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Her point was that CIOs need to have a reason to talk to the CEO. And it can't be about whether they should upgrade from Bloatware 3.2 to Bloatware 4.0. They have to have a bigger agenda than IT: "They really have to behave like ordinary business people if the CEO will want to hear what they have to say," she said.

So what is it that CEOs want to hear? It's no longer enough to tell them you are a 'proactive change agent'. They want something more.

Cathy reckons she's got some ideas: "There are topics coming up like changing the business model and customer churn - and how to prevent it - that are good angles for the CIO to learn enough to go to the CEO and say something new," she told me.

David Butler from customer engagement company TripleIC also argues that customer churn is a biggie - "the profit killer of the 21st century" and something that CIOs are well placed to battle with.

It's also likely to be something close to the heart of any CEO and thus a good opportunity for a switched-on tech chief to get noticed. As he points out you have to understand how your CEO is rewarded, "and good business performance usually revolves around your customers giving you more money".

Companies are still spending millions on customer research - the marketing director has failed in this area and they know it, Butler says - which means the CIO has a good opportunity to swoop in and save the day. Which is always a nice position to be in.

It's an interesting argument. Issues like customer churn are often corporate orphans, not really sitting under marketing or sales or having any other obvious pigeonhole, yet can really undermine the good work being done across the organisation. And that could mean it's a good issue that CIOs can pounce on and use to distinguish themselves. I'm sure there are more issues out there as well and I'd be keen to hear about them from you (post a Reader Comment below or email me at editorial@silicon.com).

But the discussion did pose an interesting question for all CIOs who are craving a seat at the big table - next time you're sitting in on a board meeting, what would you like to talk to them about?

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