Before the age of Facebook and Twitter, the acronym “CIO” — which stands for “chief information officer” — once stood for “career is over”. Up till the 1990s, the role was a multi-faceted one: a technocrat, a businessperson, a cheerleader and the custodian of the IT department all at once. Far from being the “next big thing” in business, IT was seen as merely its handmaiden. Books with titles like “Does IT Matter?” were still in vogue.
Things could not be more different in today’s digital economy, where giants like Dell CIO Jennifer Felch and Facebook CIO Atish Banerjea enjoy a prominent public profile. This is especially so in the context of Covid19, which significantly accelerated the pace of digitalisation as firms scrambled to implement business continuity solutions. “Covid-19 was a very good teacher — without IT, some companies really sank,” reflects Professor Alex Siow, computing professor at the National University of Singapore.
And he should know — Siow was, after all, the man who started it all in Singapore when he was appointed CIO of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in 1990. Previously a structural engineer with a knack for computing, which he pursued on the side, Siow was roped in by then-CEO Chuang Kwong Yong to head the Computer Services Department to troubleshoot technical and administrative issues. The two men knew each other from their National Service days when Chuang was a trainee under Siow, a platoon sergeant who maintained tight discipline and high standards when leading his men.
Siow, with his long-held “never say no” philosophy, agreed to take on the challenge. His only condition was to also contribute actively to the management side of HDB’s business. With thousands of employees, HDB is a sprawling government organisation taking care of issues ranging from drawing up master plans for new towns decades down the road, to dealing with rent collection from neighbourhood shops.
All these functions have to be supported by Siow, and his new CIO title and the department’s new name — the Information Services Department (ISD) — reflected a hybridity of business and technical responsibilities and a more comprehensive purview beyond computing alone.
With the full backing of Chuang and his successor, former Minister of Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, Siow drew on his experience in project management to develop strategic plans to reshape both ISD and HDB as a whole, winning the National IT Awards and the Excellence in IT Training Awards in 1996. HDB, notes Siow proudly, was then the only large organisation with a comprehensive strategy to train all staff with IT skills.
“The CIO basically is a technical advisor to top management on the use of IT strategically for business competitiveness,” says Siow, who also held the CIO role at StarHub. CIOs also actively run back-end IT operations, guiding these operations to serve the strategic objectives established by management on the front end. “If you want to be a technologist, just go and be a scientist and do research. But if you want to be a CIO, you have no choice but to learn about the business,” he says.
CEO-in-waiting
With financial skills seen as core in running any organisation, especially those with investors and shareholders to answer to, CFOs are often prime candidates to take over the top job. Yet, Siow believes that CIO too, is a role that is suited to training “CEOs-in-waiting”.
However, he compares the sheer breadth and difficulty of the latter’s responsibilities to the arduous “Twelve Labours of Hercules’’. Many are called, but few are chosen, due to the challenge of fully mastering a CIO’s broad skill set.
Nevertheless, there have been exemplary names. Greg Carmichael, CEO of US-based Fifth Third Bank, joined as CIO in 2003, using the strategic perch of the latter role to learn more about the wider business. Under Carmichael, Fifth Third has grown to US$185 billion ($245.6 billion) in assets as of end-March 2020. In 2018, it was named American Banker’s Digital Banker of the Year and Overall Leader in the Best Technology Strategy category of the Bank Director’s Ranking Banking study.
“We live in a technology environment and digitisation continues to progress. The skills CIOs hone, which include problem-solving, the ability to multitask, being innovative and forward thinking, being able to give clear, concise information and communications to the organisation, and knowing how to execute and deliver solutions that meet the businesses’ needs in the most effective way, are highly applicable to the CEO job,” Carmichael told Forbes in an interview.
As CIO of HDB, Siow’s diverse responsibilities included securing the organisation’s information security and managing the use of data within the organisation. For instance, he supervised the installation of an on-site data centre at HDB’s old Maxwell Road headquarters by knocking down a wall to bring in the mammoth mainframe computer. He was also de facto chief techology officer (CTO), introducing electronic devices for HDB inspectors to issue parking summons, as well as introducing desktop computing for all staff in 1990.
Nowadays, many firms are increasingly dividing up these roles due to the complexity of the responsibilities. CTOs, for instance, take on a more all-encompassing role of bringing in strategic technology, while CIOs churn out data and information for organisational use. Information security and data protection are now often allocated to their own dedicated personnel. With the personnel in all roles having to work together to ensure smooth operating of a firm’s IT and technology functions, management must beware of too many cooks spoiling the broth.
But ultimately, CIOs are only as good as the CEO they report to, says Siow, who attributes his success to the support of the CEOs he has worked under. Better yet are CEOs who operate like CIOs, with Siow praising DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta as “the biggest friend of a CIO” as he looks to reimagine the bank as a technology company. He also considers DBS Group CIO Jimmy Ng, who is responsible for implementing the group’s vision of digital transformation, as the hallmark of a CIO.
“How I respect a [CIO] is based on the effect of what they have done in transforming an organisation. If they don’t transform an organisation, they are just IT managers,” Siow remarks. He notes that Resorts World Sentosa’s Yap Chee Yuen and Marina Bay Sands’ Alberto “Arch” Jose are examples of transformative CIOs who apply technology to reinvent their businesses.
Yet the converse is also true. “In all successful organisations, the CEO works very closely with the CTO and the CIO, because the CEO knows that these are the pillars on whom the business actually runs,” says Raju Chellam, fellow, advanced computing for executives at NUS and editor of Siow’s latest book, “Leading with IT: Lessons from Singapore’s First CIO”. No strategic plans can be made without the CIO, for they have great influence over the day-to-day operations of a digitally enabled company.
Leadership lessons
A CIO cannot, however, be just a technically competent “nerd” who works in relative solitude. The task of managing a company’s IT team requires top-class management skills too. “I have been a follower of the concept of ‘servant leadership’ that was first embodied by the Prussian King Frederick II,” says Siow, who spent five years training as an engineer in Germany. Better known as Frederick the Great, the Prussian king declared himself “first servant of the state” and effected the rapid transformation of Prussia into a modern, bureaucratic state — much like digitally transforming a large company.
Similar to the Prussian king, who spent much of his time in the military, it was during National Service that Siow — who rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel — learnt how to manage large teams of soldiers. Rank and status held no particular significance for him, as he recalls squatting with cooks and drivers during meals despite being their commanding officer. Treating people as equal regardless of their identity and exercising leadership by example, he believes, inspires respect — every part of an organisation is important from top to bottom.
“One of the very important things that I did was to come up with a vision statement for IT,” Siow says. A key pillar of his vision is best encapsulated by the slogan, “The answer is yes, what is your question?”, which he says was designed to combat attitudes of learnt helplessness and inertia that previously prevailed in the IT department. “Our IT is there to help the business. If we keep on saying no, what are we here for?” he asks, noting that even an imperfect “workaround” solution is often better than none at all.
Siow therefore subscribes to the philosophy of “failing fast”, embracing failing as a step towards one’s goal. “Management is an art, not a science,” he remarks, noting that there is no hope for those who do not try. If the entire market refrains from innovating because the firms’ managements do not want to bear the burden and risks of being first, he retorts, many beneficial innovations would not come to fruition since nobody has made the first step. Innovation must be in the blood of a CIO to ensure that their firm can distinguish itself technologically.
And a good leader must also demonstrate a sense of personal integrity. “It is very irresponsible for us to tell lies in order to get our objective,” he emphasises, scorning charismatic opportunists who deceive and manipulate their followers with falsehoods. Adolf Hitler, Siow notes from his experience in Germany, was one such demagogue, cravenly manipulating the suffering and sense of humiliation of the German people to bring them down the dark path of genocide.
The pragmatism inherent in Siow’s belief that “the end justifies the means’’ is therefore tempered by the moral imperative to be upright in one’s dealings. He recalls telling his team not to run down rival departments and claim credit for their achievements, even if such machiavellianism offers seductive rewards for the savvy office politician. Ultimately, notes Siow, an IT department’s fate is tied to that of the business — a CIO should not compromise the collective welfare of the company at-large for parochial departmental or personal interests.
But perhaps Siow’s best advice to a CIO would be to sit down and read some history. “History is a good teacher,” he says, noting that the past reflects itself and provides relevant lessons about human behaviour that can be applied to the fast-changing business environment. With a keen interest in Chinese history, the classical antiquity of ancient Rome and Greece, as well as in his leadership mentor Frederick the Great, one can imagine that Siow has been well-taught.
