Andy Farella spent 5 years rising up the IT management ranks at Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) — first as director of enterprise functions after which affiliate CIO — when he began feeling stressed.
“I used to be coping with a number of elements of the group and concerned with massive tasks, points, and challenges,” Farella says. On the time he managed 125 folks and was main the technical aspect of a multiyear, multimillion-dollar ERP implementation. He reported to the CIO and had common interplay with senior management. “I used to be beginning to really feel like I might do this job, the CIO function,” Farella says.
He knew he would first must fill some expertise gaps, so Farella wrote an inventory of all the talents and expertise wanted to develop into a CIO, and he began checking off the bins.
He already understood the infrastructure house from his earlier jobs. Examine. He centered on the applying house at CHOP. Examine. He stayed shut with IT safety and the CISO studying the challenges that they had as a result of he knew it was a giant a part of the CIO’s accountability. Examine. He continued to work on his relationships inside IT, with friends, throughout organizations and the enterprise. Examine. Innovation, funds administration, vendor administration — verify. When he finally utilized for CIO roles, he used this guidelines as a information for his cowl letter.
4 years later, Farella grew to become CIO at NBME, which supplies assessments and academic companies within the medical and healthcare sectors. “I’m within the room the place the whole lot occurs for this group,” Farella says. “The scope of accountability was the principle attraction.”
Andy Farella, CIO, NBME
NBME
Not each path to the CIO suite is so meticulously deliberate or follows a straight line, however alternatives for senior administrators and VPs to develop into CIOs are growing — partly due to the Nice Resignation and retirements, but in addition due to the altering calls for of the CIO function. The excellent news is — there are lots of pathways to the CIO suite.
Some tech VPs and administrators are buying deep information of their trade by staying on the similar firm for many years, others are taking their IT skills to totally different sectors to select up new expertise or tackle extra accountability.
About 70% of CIOs positioned by recruiting agency Harvey Nash come from a expertise background, in keeping with estimates. One other 25% come from areas near tech, similar to operations and transformation workplaces, and 5% come from a pure enterprise background.
Govt search agency Robert Half estimates that 60% of latest CIOs have expertise in the identical trade because the hiring firm, and 35% have an MBA.
“There’s room within the CIO world for all of those sorts. The non-technology folks must study sufficient expertise to be related and to earn belief on the govt desk,” says Jeffrey Weber, govt director of the expertise observe group at Robert Half. “They must carry broad perspective.”
These up-and-comers have taken totally different paths to the precipice of the c-suite, however they share three key attributes that make them prime candidates: robust communication expertise, inspirational management qualities, and sturdy networks each inside and outdoors of their organizations.
One firm, one objective
Although uncommon today, some up-and-comers have excelled at one firm for his or her total profession. Jill Bowen, IT director and chief of workers to the CIO, marked 26 years with chemical producer Dow in January and has by no means felt the necessity to go away. “Dow is a giant firm and there are such a lot of positions to study and discover,” she says.
Jill Bowen, IT director and chief of workers to the CIO, Dow
Dow
She started working for the corporate in highschool as a part of its cooperative schooling program, interned with Dow in school, then earned a bachelor’s diploma in advertising and marketing and administration and was provided a full-time job.
She spent the primary 10 years in numerous customer support roles “the place I received to work together with the purchasers and perceive the order-to-cash course of and perceive how Dow makes cash,” she says. A co-worker satisfied her to maneuver into IT.
As an IT implementation specialist, she helped coordinate the IT elements of mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures, doing implementation checklists and ensuring these went off seamlessly. “I utilized for a task I didn’t absolutely perceive, however I put myself on the market and that was in all probability one of many greatest turning factors in my profession,” she says.
She finally labored on a world, multiyear ERP implementation that took her to Dow areas world wide. From there she went into the buying work-process house and was in a position to develop in numerous roles serving to to outline work processes. She finally discovered her means again to IT and to the CIO chief of workers place in August 2020.
She credit an entrepreneurial mindset for her rise via the IT group. “I’ve introduced ahead totally different massive concepts in my profession which were supported and had been sport changers,” similar to a chance to globally streamline and standardize the purchase-requisition-to-purchase-order work course of, which improved effectivity, saved cash, and laid the inspiration for robotics course of automation, she says. She additionally considers herself a proactive communicator with a constructive angle.
As chief of workers, Bowen companions intently with CIO Melanie Kalmar (who has been with Dow for 34 years) on IT technique. “I’m a part of her management workforce. I’m at all times listening for alternatives and attempting to grasp the heartbeat of the group,” Bowen says.
With a powerful group of advocates and sponsors at Dow, Bowen says she’s by no means felt the necessity to look exterior the corporate to seize a CIO function extra shortly. However she’s nonetheless increasing and elevating her skilled community via a number of tech associations in Michigan.
She additionally has an govt coach who helps her sharpen her management expertise. “I’m a agency believer that you have to be spending 4 to eight hours a month on private growth — whether or not that’s studying or participating with folks that sponsor or mentor you and holding them on top of things on new issues that you simply’re engaged on.”
Switching sectors
Whereas deep trade information has many advantages, many aspiring CIOs have constructed technical strengths that translate effectively into any group. “Most individuals that I see getting into CIO roles from exterior an trade carry a set of capabilities into a company that’s behind the ball” in some space, says Barry Brunsman, head of KPMG’s world CIO Advisory Middle of Excellence and a principal in its CIO Advisory observe. They could possibly be bringing buyer expertise capabilities to healthcare or omnichannel information to retail, for instance.
That’s how James McFarlane discovered himself at furnishings retailer La-Z-Boy as its senior director of IT enterprise companies in 2018. McFarlane had moved up the IT ranks with the State of Michigan and in native authorities for many of his IT profession.
In Michigan, “it was massive scope, massive tasks, massive workers,” McFarlane says, with nearly 2,000 folks reporting to him. “Plenty of La-Z-Boy’s expertise in retail administration, level of sale and omnichannel expertise, and ERP had been very previous. I had expertise with legacy modernization and utility rationalization,” he says. “These experiences additionally taught me to handle budgets, do tasks utilizing agile, Scrum, SDLC with legacy modernization. These are all ideas you’ll be able to take with you it doesn’t matter what trade you’re in,” he says.
James McFarlane, senior director of IT enterprise companies, La-Z-Boy
La-Z-Boy
To achieve the subsequent step in his profession, McFarlane focuses on constructing relationships with enterprise companions inside La-Z-Boy and friends exterior the corporate. He sits on the board of the Nationwide Retail Federation Tech council and meets quarterly with different deputy CIOs from different retail organizations.
He credit a superb relationship with La-Z-Boy CIO David Behen for a lot of of those connections. “He encourages me to get out and have a superb stable community in place and to study,” McFarlane says. “We put collectively knowledgeable growth plan yearly.”
He continues to sharpen different vital expertise, similar to avoiding “IT communicate” and articulating enterprise worth via operational effectiveness, profitability, and development. He’s additionally engaged on balancing enterprise priorities. “Everybody wants expertise proper now, and I are likely to need to do greater than I can, however generally we have to say no or put one thing on pause for the better good. It’s studying from a method standpoint what can we tackle and execute efficiently.”
Erik Sabadie earned 5 promotions over the previous 10 years at Lease-A-Middle and now reviews to the CIO as vp of enterprise applied sciences. “I’m not sitting round considering that being CIO is my objective. I’ve at all times felt that if I do the suitable issues and care for the issues I can management, then good issues will occur,” he says.
Early in his profession, Sabadie determined to not develop into a deep material professional however to pursue a broader path that lends itself extra to a administration profession. “That was a reasonably key choice — even arising within the functions aspect of the world. If you’re managing the applying, a part of that’s realizing the way it interacts with the community, the database, with safety, all of the totally different IT parts. That compelled me into realizing a little bit bit about quite a lot of areas, which actually helped me long run,” he says.
Erik Sabadie, vp of enterprise applied sciences, Lease-A-Middle
Lease-A-Middle
He additionally centered on constructing relationships throughout the firm and main with empathy — “strolling alongside somebody via their challenges,” Sabadie says. That features serving to his direct reviews get face time with different senior leaders to showcase their skills — a observe he recommends at each skilled degree.
“I’ve grown lots within the realm of selling myself internally,” he says, “ensuring I’ve nice partnerships with friends on the enterprise aspect and that they’re listening to me and seeing me. Ensuring I’m the entrance face of challenges when we now have technical points.”
As he nears the subsequent step on the skilled ladder, Sabadie is constructing his exterior community and maintaining with exterior traits. “I’ve received to take it to the subsequent degree for that severe CIO consideration,” Sabadie says, however it doesn’t preoccupy him. “If it’s meant to be, then good issues will occur.”
Smaller firm, massive alternative
Govt search agency JM Search sees a small however rising development the place up-and-comers search for CIO positions at smaller, non-public equity-backed corporations the place they’ll create impression. Farella made an identical transfer from a big hospital to a small healthcare-related firm.
Most frequently, aspiring CIOs look to those smaller corporations for greater salaries, “a unique vibe and their capacity to create impression at a a lot quicker tempo,” says Ben Millrood, associate and co-leader of the IT executives observe at JM Search.
Proper now, just one or two out of 10 candidates positioned in these CIO positions are fully new to the function, however up-and-comers are nonetheless very aggressive, says Invoice Hogenauer, associate and co-practice chief within the IT executives observe.
“These one or two are seen as athletes” who labored below the CIO and did precisely what the consumer is in search of. “They’ve the publicity and potential,” Hogenauer says. Up-and-comers like Farella are getting a re-examination as a result of there aren’t sufficient candidates who’ve already held a CIO place, he provides. “There’s lots to be stated for giving these folks a shot.”
Govt recruiters say it’s necessary to ascertain a set of annual goals for closing the hole between VP and CIO roles.
“Ensure you’re working for a corporation the place you’re going via 9-box actions (that assist establish management qualities), succession planning, and formal coaching to know that you simply’re on that path,” Millrood says. Have a deliberate, activity-based set of goals constructed into your annual plan, he provides. “Don’t anticipate it to occur. Take cost.”
