As Founder and CEO of HMG Strategy, I am accustomed to a wide range of duties and responsibilities. Early in my career journey, I noticed that the best executives weren’t shy about rolling up their sleeves and becoming involved in every part of the business. They weren’t micromanagers, but they understood what drove their organizations. Their deep knowledge often gave them an unbeatable advantage over their competitors.
In The CEO of Technology, one of the six business leadership books that I’ve written, I argued that the greatest technology executives are also great business leaders. The convergence of business and technology has been a perennial theme at our HMG Strategy summits, events and daily interactions with global technology leaders. So, it didn’t surprise me when people began noticing that CIOs were being tasked with more customer-focused responsibilities.
“Chief information officers increasingly are spearheading the rollout of digital tools for customers—a new brief that is taking them beyond their main role as caretakers of a company’s enterprise technology,” writes Angus Loten of The Wall Street Journal. “Across sectors, CIOs have spent the past two years creating digital storefronts and offices via online shopping tools, mobile ordering and pickup apps, videoconferencing and collaboration systems, and other outward-facing platforms.”
I enjoyed reading Mr. Loten’s excellent article, which maps with our own proprietary, peer-focused research. And of course, I agree with its essential premise. Many of today’s top CIOs are deeply involved with the customer-focused aspects of their companies. They’re also playing an integral role in redesigning the customer experience. And when you consider the rapid evolution of digital business, it makes total sense that CIOs would be tapped for more duties and responsibilities. As I wrote in The CEO of Technology, great CIOs are much more than brilliant technology gurus – they are drivers and enablers of business.
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Engaging face-to-face with our industry’s top executives and thought leaders is an incomparable experience. After two years of video conferences, it’s a pleasure to be meeting people in person again. I look forward to our in-person, executive-level events and I am absolutely certain that you will find them highly valuable opportunities for sharing insight, acquiring knowledge and networking with peers.
At HMG Strategy, our goal is preparing you for the unlimited future. Everything we do here supports our fundamental mission of helping you accelerate your career ascent and to become more effective leaders in the C-suite, across the line-of-business, at the board level and in managing your teams. Our truly unique and powerful platform enables you to acquire knowledge from the top-tier thought leaders and practitioners, to meet and mingle with your peers, and to hear the latest news about the newest technologies from trusted sources.
HMG Strategy is the world’s largest independent global platform for technology leaders, with a growing network of over 400,000 technology executives. Our global, social and digital platform has expanded significantly, and we welcome you to visit the HMG Strategy Resource Center to learn directly from the most innovative leaders of our time.
