CIOs Enter 2021 With Expanded Role

“The pandemic has shown us that digital transformation is the number one business imperative right now, and, as a result, the role of the CIO has never been more crucial,” said Chris Bedi, CIO of cloud-software company ServiceNow Inc.

Mr. Bedi, one of 45 IT executives who responded via email to CIO Journal’s annual end-of-year questionnaire, said the crisis has accelerated a long-running push to revamp business models with digital technology, driving the strategy to the top of the C-suite agenda.

Before Covid-19, top-line issues like corporate strategy were not primary responsibilities for most senior IT managers. Yet largely through the adoption of cloud computing, industry analysts say, IT leaders throughout the pandemic have been able to furnish real-time data on fast-changing markets, bringing advanced analytics to bear on crucial decisions.

Mike McNamara, Target Corp.’s CIO, said throughout the year the role of IT leaders proved to be central to revenue generation and productivity, especially as stay-at-home consumers across all industries moved to digital channels.

With business decisions becoming intertwined with cloud computing and software applications—putting a premium on the know-how to make them to work—tech leaders say they are increasingly being judged on business results, rather than as custodians of IT systems.

Going forward, they have plenty of room to grow inside typical corporate structures. Even with an expanded role, wages for senior IT managers appear to have changed little since the pandemic struck, according to data compiled by global staffing firm Robert Half International Inc. In October, it reported high-range salaries for CIOs at U.S. firms at $300,250 on average, inching up from $298,750 a year earlier. Similar incremental gains were reported for chief technology officers and IT directors. The results are based on job-placement data, the firm said.

Jeff Lemmer, vice president and chief information officer of Ford Motor Co., said CIO compensation has been fairly stable over the past three years, though within the Fortune 100, he adds, “there is greater variability.”

In a recent survey by IT recruiting and outsourcing firm Harvey Nash Inc., and global accounting and professional services firm KPMG International Ltd., roughly a third of CIOs at large global firms said they don’t sit on their company’s board. One in every 10 companies have no tech executives on the board at all, according to the survey, which included responses by more than 4,000 corporate IT leaders fielded before and after the outbreak.

The lightning response to the crisis—from setting up remote-work systems to deploying business-continuity tools—has raised the status of IT in many organizations, said David Vidoni, vice president of IT at software maker Pegasystems Inc. He says companies that were caught short by the pandemic will be looking for tech leadership to help overhaul their systems and be better prepared for crises in the future.

“This will be seen as a great opportunity for some CIOs to make a change,” Mr. Vidoni said.

Even now, he said, IT managers and workers need to understand how businesses work and be advisers on how to do things better: “We’re not order takers and, if anything, this year has proven our value,” Mr. Vidoni said.

As tech spending becomes a more prominent line item, many tech leaders will be on the lookout for employers that treat them as business executives, said Citrix Systems Inc. CIO Meerah Rajavel.

“Across industries, more and more CIOs are shifting to line-of-business and profit-and-loss responsibility,” he said. “I think you will see more CIOs look for opportunities.”

Write to Angus Loten at [email protected]