Staying the Course as a CIO. Jonathan Mitchell

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      Staying the Course as a CIO

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      The Wiley CIO series provides information, tools, and insights to IT executives and managers. The products in this series cover a wide range of topics that supply strategic and implementation guidance on the latest technology trends, leadership, and emerging best practices.

      Titles in the Wiley CIO series include:

      The Agile Architecture Revolution: How Cloud Computing, REST-Based SOA, and Mobile Computing Are Changing Enterprise IT by Jason Bloomberg

      Big Data, Big Analytics: Emerging Business Intelligence and Analytic Trends for Today's Businesses by Michael Minelli, Michele Chambers, and Ambiga Dhiraj

      The Chief Information Officer's Body of Knowledge: People, Process, and Technology by Dean Lane

      CIO Best Practices: Enabling Strategic Value with Information Technology (Second Edition) by Joe Stenzel, Randy Betancourt, Gary Cokins, Alyssa Farrell, Bill Flemming, Michael H. Hugos, Jonathan Hujsak, and Karl Schubert

      The CIO Playbook: Strategies and Best Practices for IT Leaders to Deliver Value by Nicholas R. Colisto

      Enterprise Performance Management Done Right: An Operating System for Your Organization by Ron Dimon

      Executive's Guide to Virtual Worlds: How Avatars Are Transforming Your Business and Your Brand by Lonnie Benson

      IT Leadership Manual: Roadmap to Becoming a Trusted Business Partner by Alan R. Guibord

      Managing Electronic Records: Methods, Best Practices, and Technologies by Robert F. Smallwood

      On Top of the Cloud: How CIOs Leverage New Technologies to Drive Change and Build Value Across the Enterprise by Hunter Muller

      Straight to the Top: CIO Leadership in a Mobile, Social, and Cloud-based World (Second Edition) by Gregory S. Smith

      Strategic IT: Best Practices for Managers and Executives by Arthur M. Langer and Lyle Yorks

      Transforming IT Culture: How to Use Social Intelligence, Human Factors, and Collaboration to Create an IT Department That Outperforms by Frank Wander

      Unleashing the Power of IT: Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together by Dan Roberts

      The U.S. Technology Skills Gap: What Every Technology Executive Must Know to Save America's Future by Gary J. Beach

      Architecting the Cloud: Design Decisions for Cloud Computing Service Models (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) by Michael Kavis

      Staying the Course as a CIO: How to overcome the trials and challenges of IT Leadership by Jonathan Mitchell

      STAYING THE COURSE AS A CIO

      HOW TO OVERCOME THE TRIALS AND CHALLENGES OF IT LEADERSHIP

      Dr Jonathan M Mitchell

      This edition first published 2015

      © 2015 Jonathan Mitchell

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      John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ,

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      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Mitchell, Jonathan M., 1961–

      Staying the course as a CIO: how to overcome the trials and challenges of IT leadership/

      Dr. Jonathan M. Mitchell.

      pages cm. – (The Wiley CIO series)

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 978-1-118-96887-1 (hardback)

      1. Chief information officers. 2. Information technology – Management. I. Title.

      HD30.2.M577 2015

      658.4′038 – dc23

      2014025612

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      ISBN 978-1-118-96887-1 (hardback)

      ISBN 978-1-118-96884-0 (ebk)

      ISBN 978-1-118-96886-4 (ebk)

      Cover image: © Jonathan Mitchell

      Cover design: Wiley

      INTRODUCTION

      Do you want to be a great IT leader? Why not? For those in corporate or public sector life, becoming a Chief Information Officer, a Senior Vice President or perhaps even a Chief Digital Officer in a large organisation is seen by many – quite rightly – to be the very pinnacle of achievement in the world of Information Technology. Today, an increasing number of IT leaders have become Board or Executive Team members in their companies. Almost all exert high levels of power and influence. However, the life expectancy of this corporate rainmaker is shockingly short. IT leaders often seem to enjoy a span no longer than a mayfly as they flutter away in the turbulent waters of the corporate pond. Few seem to stay the course for much longer than a couple of years and it is rare to find anyone making it to half of a decade or more. Some organisations even change their CIO every year. And most of the endings are not happy ones either. Very often something, or more commonly a whole bunch of somethings, goes horribly wrong and the reign of the noble IT leader comes to an abrupt and brutal end. In some cases the disaster takes the form of a slow-motion train wreck. With growing inevitability, it can be months before the inadvertent act of hara-kiri is finally completed and the inevitable mushroom cloud of dust and the smell of doom imperiously rise from