Early heads of the IT function came to their positions by being very good at technology -- mainframe data processing, in particular. False. The CIO was born out of a fundamental dispute within the U.S. labor movement over how to organize industrial workers. Is your tech transformation actively incorporating each of the three vectors of change? They couldnt tell who was IT or LOB, he quips. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO union one of the largest and . President of the Mine Workers (UMWA) and founding president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). It also involves infusing technology into every strategy discussion and process throughout the organization. Based on this years research, it appears IT leaders have figured out a winning formula for building trust with LOB peers and effectively cultivating business user engagement. The technical challenges CIOs faced did not abate. Adept CIOs also understood how their IT mission and strategic plans supported the company's mission and strategic goals -- and they made those connections for both their staff and for their C-suite peers. The head of technology and analytics at a large retail organization set up a talent war room to hire data scientists and engineers. In 1938, these unions formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations as a rival labor federation. Without a high-level understanding of complex and potentially game-changing technologies, such as blockchain and AI, "you won't have the insights into the opportunities that the technology provides," he said. How often do you publicly celebrate success and support noble failures? When the Texas Typographical Association was founded in April, 1838, it invited all printers in the Republic of Texas to join. Digital transformation projects at companies with traditional business models and large investments in legacy technology are typically complex, large-scale, multiyear, arduous and therefore prone to failure. At large companies, there were data centers to build, networks to protect and critical business applications to maintain. For the remainder of the twentieth century, the AFL-CIO remained the largest union organization in the United States. Both the CIO and the AFL grew rapidly during the Great Depression. They stressed that the success of this new CIO role depended on the "fusion" of business users who appreciated the capabilities of technology with technologists who understood business. As part of a digital transformation, for instance, the CIO at a large financial institution committed to developing digital products to help the business scale its presence in a new market. The calls. CIOs who want to reinvent techs role need tech stars, particularly the best engineers. Peoples World is a voice for progressive change and socialism in the United States. Are the most important technology initiatives delivering quantifiable business value to the company? Since its beginnings nearly 40 years ago, the job of an organization's top IT executive has involved the cost-effective andstrategic management of IT systems. By the end of 1936, the UE had organized the General Electric plant at Schenectady, N.Y., and went on to organize 358 more local unions with contracts covering over 600,000 workers in 1375 plants. New York, NY: Anchor Books, 2011.. Ibid, 445.. Goldfield, Michael. The natural cycle swings leave IT leaders grappling with how to strike the right balance between business innovation and operational excellencea major issue for three quarters (76%) of respondents to this years survey. The evolution of the CIO job from technology expert to a business strategist with deep technical expertise has arguably been more dramatic than any other C-level role transition. Here are a few things CEOs can do: Gaining support for a transformation requires that stakeholders understand that true change will come only from tackling all three transformation vectors in a strategic, interlinked manner. Since the CIO role's inception, all high-performing CIOs have needed to be able to inspire and lead their IT organizations. While finding the right footing has always been a challenge, the need to advance the dual business imperatives on a parallel track was particularly acute this past year, especially after a period of whirlwind digital innovation. Apostle of industrial unionism. A cause of death was not immediately announced. Figure 13.1: Union membership as a percentage of total employment, 1930-2015. Eight-five percent of IT leaders surveyed this year devoted time to transformational responsibilities, including modernizing infrastructure and applications (40%), aligning IT initiatives with business goals (38%), and cultivating the IT/business partnership (30%). CIOs do this by continually reviewing customer-satisfaction reports, regularly monitoring customer-care calls, and participating in user forums to hear direct feedback. Cloud computing companies provided software, infrastructure and platforms as a service to other organizations. Also known as big iron, mainframes are the expensive, complex computers that debuted in the late 1950s and were used primarily by large companies for high-speed calculations and data crunching. Those who favored craft unionism believed in defending the advantages they had secured through their skills. Top CIOs, therefore, develop diverse career paths so that top talent can advance in their own areas of strengthfor example, by letting a top-notch software engineer advance while continuing to code design software rather than forcing her to manage others in order to succeed. Combining the best of union dues payment software, union member communications software, grievance tracking software - all under a single, modern, web-based system. For this reason, companies need to be tech forward: technology needs to drive the business. This effort to understand what mattered to each leader established trust, and from each of these discussions it became clear that the business wanted a true partnership with technology and understood what it meant. "The working people of . In addition, they led weekly check-ins to track the talent funnel and adjust the process as needed. Before understanding the responsibilities of the new CIO, its important to understand the nature of tech transformations themselves. Infighting among union members was minimized, creating a strong organization that still exists today. Anusha Dhasarathy is a partner in McKinseys Chicago office, where Isha Gill is an associate partner and Naufal Khan is a senior partner. Esther Eggertsen Peterson Eloquent and effective advocate for the rights of workers, women and . When he started out as a young CTO in the 1990s, the CIOs he knew were IT operators -- by necessity. Top-quartile IT organizations are more likely to have an integrated or fully digital operating model, according to McKinseys 2018 IT strategy survey. Ibid., 17-18.. . We have found, for example, that the best CIOs go far beyond meeting with the C-suite or attending strategy meetings. Given the frenetic pace of technology deployment these last few years, companies like Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and Houston, Texas-based waste management and environmental services provider WM are making it a priority to finish what was started and refine processes to ensure optimal ROI. Today, this has reversed: 36 percent of public workers and 7 percent of those in the private sector are union members. Can I clearly articulate the businesss goals? Subordinating tech decisions to customer needs was crucial in allowing the CIO and his team to develop a digital offering that succeeded where it mattered: with consumers. A CIO is a C-level executive for a reason, they have a vision. Two solutions have proven effective. As always, its a tale of having to do both, notes Bess Healy, senior vice president and CIO at Stamford, Conn.-based financial services company Synchrony. Songwriter, itinerant laborer, union organizerand martyr. How often do company leaders reach out to you for substantive guidance about how tech can improve their business. Findings from our 2018 IT strategy survey reveal that companies with top IT organizations are much more likely than others to have the CIO very involved with shaping the business strategy and agenda, and strong performance on core IT tasks enables faster progress against . Despite this pressing need, of the organizations that have pursued digitization, 79 percent of them are still in the early stages of their technology transformation, according to McKinseys 2018 IT strategy survey. Both technology and business leaders made it a priority to attend these panel discussions so that they could effectively guide their teams on developing products that would best address the needs of end customers. At the end of the process, the business was able to make an informed decision. False. Amazon CodeGuru reviews code and suggests improvements to users looking to make their code more efficient as well as optimize Establishing sound multi-cloud governance practices can mitigate challenges and enforce security. Some of the other trends pushing the CIO agenda include the following: Prepare for a CIO interview with these 20 questions, CIO job description: Chief information officer responsibilities. True. In the 1930s, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed as a result of political differences in the AFL. Knowing which technology will help the business remains one of the trickiest aspects of the CIO role. Below is a general breakdown of some of the key IT-related C-suite roles beyond the CIO: For as long as there have been CIOs, there's been handwringing over what the role entails and how to fill it successfully. The business reports these technology systems of record generated included the monthly payroll, inventory, sales and other back-office transactional data. The pandemic radically changed that mindset. It was not until the first decade of the new millennium -- with the rise of social media, smartphones, the world's largest search engine and the world's largest e-commerce company -- that companies grasped how integral IT was to business strategy and fully appreciated the importance of IT-business alignment. Interim CIOs are typically hired for a period that ranges from six months to two years. Cookie Preferences Technology was no longer the exclusive province of IT experts or an add-on for business functions; it was everywhere, it was a normal part of everyday experience and it was changing how business got done. In the 1940s, 10 percent of public workers and 34 percent of those in the private sector belonged to unions. Its member unions span from the Actors Equity . These were the Minneapolis Teamsters Strike, the West Coast Longshore Strike, and the Toledo Auto-Lite strike. 1843 Lowell Female Labor Reform Association begins public petitioning for 10-hour day. The AFL-CIO is the largest union federation in the U.S., made up of 55 national and international unions with 12.5 million members worldwide. Instead of delivering capabilities that work at an account level with an individual partner, we are looking at how to treat customers across multiple partners and thinking about the everyday digital experience across a suite of products, Healy explains. They started to press the AFL to change its policies in this area. Almost half of survey respondents (49%) cited increasing cybersecurity protections as the top business initiative driving IT investments, up dramatically from 34% in 2021. LightRocket via Getty Images. While part of the CIO's job is to identify and employ emerging technologies to win early advantages for their companies, they must do so in a fashion that won't lock in organizations if things change. Existing unions, particularly the American Federation of Labor (AFL . The potential security risks and integration problems posed by unauthorized, ad hoc technology decisions -- referred to as shadow IT -- highlighted another skill required of effective CIOs. interim CIO (interim chief information officer): An interim CIO, also known as a contract CIO, is a qualified chief information officer who serves a company on a temporary basis. [2] However, that trend has since reversed. The AFL did include certain industrial unions, such as the United Mine Workers and the Brewery Workers, but the more dogmatic craft unionists still dominated the federation, and used their power to quash drives toward industrial organizing. The relentless pace of technology innovation and change in recent years has quieted that chatter. The stage is set for CIOs both to lead a successful technology transformation and to influence business strategy. "In a worst-case scenario for labor and the left, Harris v. 1 directive for CIOs this year was to upgrade IT and data security to reduce corporate risk, cited by a third of survey respondents. When you explain the ramifications of tech decisions, do leaders really understand you? The modern use of the term digital transformation refers to what companies must do today to compete in an environment where the way people work and live is increasingly mediated through digital technologies. The CIO and his leadership team were involved from the very beginning in determining the data and analytics capabilities needed to fulfill the companys business strategy. By 1983, only twenty percent of American workers belonged to a union. Just like the CEO has a big . While cybersecurity has been a boardroom-level issue for the last few years, the conversation is now broader, expanding to IT and business resiliency, notes Satya Jayadev, vice president and CIO at Skyworks Solutions, a semiconductor manufacturer based in Irvine, Calif. Skyworks is both adopting a defensive posture (i.e., identifying and thwarting attacks) and mapping out an offensive strategy to get systems back up and running in an expedited timeframe. There are over a dozen unions represented by the Actors Equity Association, Utility Workers Union of America, and others. In an "augmented-product era," as one CIO put it, it's no longer enough for companies to sell a great widget. Philip Murray Created by John L. Lewis, it was originally called the Committee for Industrial Organization, but changed its name in 1938 when it broke away from the AFL. We are now digesting innovation and making sure everything works. Next on the agenda: Looking for opportunities to automate key business processes and ramping up security, he adds. "Nationalism," the new issue of Jacobin is out now. Diana Dors v. Marilyn Monroe: Class, crime, and the Blonde Bombshell, A few of the Communist women who shaped U.S. history, Union leaders hail Su nomination as new Labor Secretary, After months of denial, U.S. admits to running Ukraine biolabs, Free college was once the norm all over America, Israeli government welcomes Azov Battalion leader as honored guest, Protests at SCOTUS as justices move to kill debt relief for 26,000,000. If theres one thing Jamie Holcombe has learned from his decades-long career as a public and private sector IT leader, its how to be a good salesman. The CIO ran a pilot with a business unit and operations team for three months to determine whether the final vendor could deliver on its capabilities. These included . CIOs remain the go-to resource for navigating technology decisionsmore than half (52%) of IT leaders surveyed this year categorized CIOs as a strategic advisor who proactively identifies business opportunities and makes recommendations while 26% viewed the CIO as a consultant, providing advice and guidance on technology selection. The percentage of unionized workers, however, declined beginning in the 1950s. That leads promising developments to stall out or underdeliver. Even as CIO responsibilities expanded, IT continued to be viewed as an expense center rather than an investment in business success. Frances Perkins "CIOs helped save many enterprises during the COVID-19 lockdown. Success increasingly depends on the widget being Wi-Fi-enabled. Helped create Social Security and Medicare. This is not just an IT effort, but an IT and business effort that involves business continuity and crisis management, explains Jayadev, who notes that Skyworks has carved out a separate organization within IT to concentrate on this area. The AFL-CIO established the Ethical Practices Committee in its efforts to control corrupt practices and racketeering of its member unions. After decades of decline, the labor movement in the U.S. has been gaining some momentum. Architecting modular platforms needs revamped approaches to hiring in order to get top-flight engineers. What percentage of technology resources is focused on work that drives business goals versus maintenance? 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Do you have a way to accurately measure and track peoples attitudes across the IT department? As one large financial institution set out to build its digital products, the business and technology teams jointly led user listening and feedback panels early and often throughout the development process. U.S. labor unions have been in decline for decades. When they wrote the book, Gruber was an assistant professor of management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Synnott the head of management information systems at Bank of Boston. However, despite burgeoning IT budgets, a C-level title and oversight of companywide systems, late 20th-century CIOs were still largely IT operators rather than business executives. They believed the strategic management of information processing by a C-level expert would give the bank a significant competitive advantage. Now, he concurs that IT operational excellence is necessary but not sufficient for CIOs. Since 1955 the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO) has been the only union federation representing the organized section of the working class in the United States, the most powerful imperialist country of the world. A project management approach wasnt giving enough business valuethere were too many starts and stops, and procurement was unwieldy, he explains. This reality requires a CIO to first come to terms with the scope of the transformation itself. On the horizon are the esoteric but tantalizing possibilities of quantum computing. The CIO was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the U.S. and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Following a year in which strike activity surged and public approval of unions reached its highest point in nearly six decades, Sen. Bernie Sanders joined Democratic lawmakers and a lone Republican on Tuesday in reintroducing legislation that would strengthen workers' organizing rights and crack down on corporate union-busting. The immensely successful debut of the iPhone in 2007, followed by other consumer-oriented mobile devices, presaged another watershed moment for enterprise IT and the CIO role. A CIO is a member of a company's executive team who oversees the information technology (IT) department within the organization. Large IT initiatives have always required detailed planning, but business-oriented CIOs ensure that transformation plans account for dependencies outside of IT, such as marketing campaigns or legal implications. False. At USPTO, Holcombes IT organization has switched from a project management orientation to product management approach to forge closer ties with internal business stakeholders and to foster IT/business alignment. 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