The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results [Hardcover]

Marianne Broadbent (Author), Ellen Kitzis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1591395771 | ISBN-13: 978-1591395775 | Publication Date: December 1, 2004 | Edition: 1

As information technology becomes increasingly essential within organizations, the reputation and role of the CIO has been diminishing. To regain credibility and avoid obscurity, CIOs must take on a larger, more strategic role. Here is a blueprint for doing exactly that. This book shows how CIOs can bridge the gap between IT and the rest of the organization and finally make IT a strategic advantage rather than a cost sink.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marianne Broadbent is associate dean at Melbourne Business School (MBS) and a Gartner Fellow with Gartner, Inc., and coauthor of Leveraging the New Infrastructure (HBS Press, 1998).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 340 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; 1 edition (December 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591395771
• ISBN-13: 978-1591395775
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For IT executives who want to make a business contribution., November 7, 2004

By 

Mark P. McDonald (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results (Hardcover)

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a position of responsibility and visibility. In the past, many thought that CIO means career is over. Broadbent and Kitzis demonstrate that this does not have to be the case. Their book, the New CIO Leader, provides a roadmap for the activities and results CIOs need to deliver to move from managing technology to leading a value creating IS organization.

Based on working with hundreds of CIOs over the past six years, Kitzis and Broadbent concentrate on 10 actions that are characteristic of a CIO leader. Those are:

1) Lead -- get out in front of issues, creating solutions and contributing to the business.

2) Understand your environment -- as this sets the context for success and contribution

3) Create your vision -- have a view on the future and how you will realize it.

4) Shape and inform expectations -- they are the criteria by which results are really measured.

5) Create clear IT governance -- the way you make decisions determines the way you will create value

6) Weave together business and IT strategy -- the two must become one and build on each other

7) Build a new IS organizations -- one that recognizes the realities of sourcing and new technologies.

8) Build high performing IT teams -- they are the ones that deliver the results, you cannot do it alone for long

9) Manage IT risks -- these are increasingly business risks

10) Communicate performance -- measure where you are, what you've done and don't keep it a secret.

Broadbent and Kitzis provide practical advice and frameworks for CIOs to use regardless of their particular industry and situation. In that way, the New CIO Leader is applicable to any IT executive looking to move into a senior leadership position.

The New CIO leader is also very applicable to the business executive who is assuming an IT leadership role -- perhaps even as a CIO themselves.

There are many books coming out on the CIO lately, filled with hype about what the CIO should be or must become. Kitzis and Broadbent provide practical advice, techniques and tools based on what CIO leaders are doing to lead the business and IT. This is not hype, the book contains proven practices for IT executives who want to make a business contribution.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book -- puzzled by other reviewer, November 23, 2004

By 

Tim Thompson (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results (Hardcover)

I don't normally write reviews but I just visited this page to buy a copy of this book for several colleagues because I was so impressed with it -- and then saw the puzzling review.

A disclaimer: I am a client of the company these researchers work for so I may be predisposed to think highly of their work. I bought this book at one of their conferences recently in Florida.

I think this really is a great book, far better than most of the leadership/business book schlock that's out there. I understand some people may disagree but some of the information above is just not true:

1) Every chapter includes a specific series of actionable steps to take and a self-assessment at the end to get a sense of your current situation

2) The IS Lite model the authors advocate is illustrated by several case studies, about 20 pages of text, an organizational chart, a comprehensive competency list etc. True you could write an entire book on this subject but the information presented is in no way cursory

3) There is a very clear overall framework for the book, how the priorities relate to each other and how CIOs should be spending their time. The book divides the CIO role into two major categories, Demand for IT and Supply for IT, and specifically advocates that CIOs should be spending at least 60% of their time on managing Demand for IT (with business colleagues, CFO etc) and focusing far less on the technology itself

4) The notes of the book show that the authors draw primarily on primary research and surveys they have personally conducted over the last 5 years. Frankly, I prefer reading books based on original and primary research than ones that synthesize stuff I've already read. Additionally they do cite work by Goleman, Treacy, Drucker, Collins and other luminaries of the business world.

5) The book is chock full of case studies and survey results. If this does not explain how the author's synthesized the results of their research, I'm not sure what would.

6) Finally I find it ironic that the negative reviewer suggests buying your CFO a cup of coffee as an alternative -- given that this is something that the book suggests. Hmmmm...

I do agree that you should pick up this book in a bookstore where you can easily verify what I've said. In conclusion, I think this book is well worth your time if you are a) a CIO, b) a direct report to a CIO, like me, c) a CFO or CEO who will be hiring a CIO soon.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You Want To Fix The Mercedes or Drive It?, November 29, 2005

By 

Christopher Byrne "The Business Controls Caddy" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results (Hardcover)

The times they are changing. The direction of change for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) has had different answers from different people. In their December 2004 book, entitled The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results (2005, Harvard Business School Press, 338 Pages, ISBN 1591395771), Marianne Broadbent (Associate Dean of the Melboune Business School) and Ellen S Kitzen (Group Vice-President of the Gartner Group's Executive Programs) argue that the choice is yours. You can choose to be a new CIO Leader or be relegated to Chief Technology Mechanic. The authors do an outstanding job of discussing the seas change, until the book loses some of its luster from what appears to be their interpretation of Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (CobiT).

The authors start out strong by identifying what the sea change is, as technology is increasingly relied up to support all functions within the enterprise. After a discussion that lays down a foundation of how they view leadership, they break the goals of the new CIO Leader down into two parts: "Demand-Side Leadership" and "Supply-Side Leadership". On the demand side, they cover politics, realities and the need for strong IT governance. They emphasize that the new CIO leader has to be willing to step and be recognized as part of the leadership team. On the supply side, they delve it what it takes to create a high-performance IT team, measure results, and communicating the results. In all, they lay a strong foundation for a framework/paradigm for CIOs to follow.

And that is where the book loses it. They are laying down a foundation that strongly resembles the CobiT Framework. CobiT is about linking technology and business objectives in an integrated fashion, providing a controls framework to ensure success. It is essentially a circular (feedback-driven) cradle to grave process. So I wondered why I was not seeing it mentioned in the book. Eventually I came to it, but only in a very brief discussion of developing security policies. This "silo" misses the mark and may give those unfamiliar with COBIT, the wrong perception of what it is. I was quite surprised given the back ground of the authors. However, this may partially be the fault of inconsistent messages that the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) puts in some of their publications.

Who Should Read This Book

This book should be read by current CIO's looking to shape their future. It should also be read by those who aspire to be a CIO one day/ The discussion is full and thought provoking.

The Scorecard

Birdie on a long par 5 reachable in two.