Why do CIOs hire IT strategy consultants?

by

connect-20333_640

“Isn’t that their job?” asked one of my husband’s relatives at a recent family reunion.  They were a bit flabbergasted that we had a whole business focused on helping CIOs do their strategic work.  In case anyone else out there is wondering, I thought I’d share some of the reasons CIOs hire us:

Reason 1:  Time
Most of our clients are so busy keeping their businesses going that they don’t have enough dedicated time to sit back and think about their strategy or how to communicate it.  Whether a CIO has vague ideas or more fully formed thoughts, getting them flushed out and communicated takes serious dedicated time.
Reason 2:  Sounding Board
Even if the CIO has time to work on strategy, his leadership team rarely has enough time to help.  In some cases, they do not really have the capability or mindset to help either.  It is hard to do strategy alone; people need a good sounding board.  Different perspectives go a long way to improving or just solidifying one’s strategy.  It is a huge help to work through the strategy with other people who have been through it before.
Reason 3:  Process
To get the right focus from the IT leadership team and the business stakeholders, a fast, well run process is imperative.  The right process helps gather the best ideas and gain buy-in from stakeholders.  This is not an easy thing for a CIO to juggle on top of their regular duties, so having someone dedicated and focused really helps.

Reason 4:  Credibility
At most organizations, consultants bring credibility to the process, especially when combined with the internal perspectives.  Other executives may look at a plan brought together by the CIO alone as potentially self serving or selectively focused, but with the backing of a reputable consultancy the right plan has more ground to stand on and will go farther in the long run.
CIOs who hire IT strategy consultants are not doing so because they lack experience or knowledge (or because they are lazy!), it is because of their experience and knowledge that they know just how important and necessary it is to hire outside help.

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more