1. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Why Do CIOs Get
Fired?
A briefing by the numbers
with suggestions for consultants
to share with their CIO clients.
by Joe Hessmiller

2. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Agenda
• Purpose of Presentation
• Let’s Take a Look at the Numbers
• Why DO CIOs Get Fired?
• Why Do CEOs Get Fired?
• Takeaways

3. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Purpose of Presentation
• At the end of this presentation you will
be able to:
– Discuss with CIOs the key career risks they
are facing
– Present low-cost, low-risk ideas for
addressing those risks

4. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Agenda
• Purpose of Presentation
• Let’s Take a Look at the Numbers
• Why DO CIOs Get Fired?
• Why Do CEOs Get Fired?
• Takeaways

5. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
CIO “Involuntary” Departures Not
Out of Step with Other CxOs
Reason Top IT Executive Left Company IS (148) HR (168)
FINANCE
(183)
SALES
(90)
Left voluntarily to pursue career opportunities elsewhere 40% 33% 29% 35%
Left involuntarily due to performance 23% 19% 23% 18%
Retired 11% 23% 20% 16%
Promoted internally 10% 8% 12% 16%
Left involuntarily due to restructuring / downsizing 5% 4% 3% 3%
Left involuntarily due to misconduct 1% 3% 4% 2%
Other 9% 11% 8% 10%
Source: One in Four CIOs Fired for Performance, Kim Nash, CIO Magazine, March 11, 2009

6. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Larger the Org, Greater the Risk
Reason Top IT Executive Left Company by
Revenue
Total
(148)
<$100
Million
(30)
$100 Mil-
$999.9
Mil (69)
$1
Billion+
(37)
Left voluntarily to pursue career opportunities
elsewhere
40% 47% 45% 24%
Left involuntarily due to performance 23% 23% 23% 30%
Left involuntarily due to misconduct 1% 0% 0% 5%
Other 9% 7% 10% 8%
Source: One in Four CIOs Fired for Performance, Kim Nash, CIO Magazine, March 11, 2009

7. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
CIO = “Career is Over” is a Myth
Tenure of Current Dept. Head by Company Size (in
years)
All
Companies
<$100
Million
$100 Mil-
$999.9
Mil
$1
Billion+
Human Resources 6.40 6.90 6.70 5.00
Information Systems 6.30 6.50 6.50 6.20
Finance 7.00 8.10 6.40 6.70
Manufacturing 6.60 n/a n/a n/a
Sales 6.30 6.30 6.20 6.10
Source: One in Four CIOs Fired for Performance, Kim Nash, CIO Magazine, March 11, 2009

8. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Agenda
• Purpose of Presentation
• Let’s Take a Look at the Numbers
• Why DO CIOs Get Fired?
• Why Do CEOs Get Fired?
• Takeaways

9. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
10 Reasons CIOs Will Get Fired
1. Failure to Attack 80/20
“The tools are now available-the at-risk component is the will of the CIO to
fight a long and grueling battle.”
2. Failure to Embrace Mobility
“…the customers of HP and SAP are clearly telling them that mobility must be
#1.”
3. Failure to Lead
“Successful CIOs surround themselves with technologists and focus instead
on leadership.”
4. Misplaced Priorities
“I can give you our IT strategy in two words: it’s our business strategy.” – Dave
Barnes, CIO, UPS
5. Revenue Involvement
“Can you really expect to survive as a cost center that’s detached from the
revenue that keeps your company alive?”
Source: Global CIO: 10 Reasons CIOs Will Get Fired This Year, InformationWeek Magazine, Bob Evans, June 10, 2010

10. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
10 Reasons CIOs Will Get Fired
6. Revenue Enhancement
“Can you show – clearly – that you know your primary job is to help the
company grow and succeed rather than run infrastructure?”
7. Customer Engagement
“…in the age of Amazon and iTunes and Twitter and apps for everything,
you don’t feel the IT organization can be bothered with enhancing customer
intimacy?”
8. Cloudy on the Cloud
“CIOs must by now have a forceful and vigorous plan for how the cloud does
or does not fit into their plans.”
9. Real-time Awareness
“How would the ability to do real-time analytics feeding real-time decisions
change how your business operates?”
10. Power of Transformation
“CIOs need…a vision for how IT can become a profound engine for helping
the CEO and the entire company create the future rather than merely
replicating the past.”
Source: Global CIO: 10 Reasons CIOs Will Get Fired This Year, InformationWeek Magazine, Bob Evans, June 10, 2010

11. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
CIOs and Business Cycles
• CIO Tenure = Length of Business Cycle
– Time Between Last Major Strategy and New One
• CIOs committed to LAST strategy are targets
when new strategy is chosen.
“If CIOs’ let themselves be the wagging tail on
this [organizational transformation], … then
they deserve…the view…provided by the tail
and its proximate parts.”
– Bob Evans, InformationWeek, June 10, 2011

12. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Agenda
• Purpose of Presentation
• Let’s Take a Look at the Numbers
• Why DO CIOs Get Fired?
• Why Do CEOs Get Fired?
• Takeaways

13. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Who CARES Why CEOs Get
Fired?
• CEOs Get Fired for the Same Reason as
Other CxOs.
• Helping the CEO Avoid Making These
Mistakes is a BIG Part of the CIOs’ Job
(whether they realize it or not.)
• So…

14. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Why Do CEOs Get Fired?
• Mismanaging Change (31%)
– Failure to Sell the Need to Change Course
– Failure to Follow-through to Solidify Gains
• Ignoring Customers (28%)
– Failure to Develop Intimate Knowledge of Customers, Customer Needs and
Developing Trends
• Tolerating Low Performers (27%)
– Failure to Improve or Discipline Poor Performers
– Loss of Credibility (Suspicion of Something to Hide)
• Denying Reality (23%)
– Far too insulated from frontline realities
– “…rather have bad news and a plan to fix it, than…no news or sugarcoated news.”
• Too Much Talk, Not Enough Action (22%)
– Grand Visions, But Neglect Tactical Planning and Evidence of Implementation
Source: Response to question, “So why did the CEO REALLY get fired or forced out?” in Global HR
News, based on 4 year, 1087 Board Members, 286 Organizations.

15. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Agenda
• Purpose of Presentation
• Let’s Take a Look at the Numbers
• Why DO CIOs Get Fired?
• Why Do CEOs Get Fired?
• Takeaways

16. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Takeaways
• CIO’s get fired for the same reasons as
other execs.
– They ignored the future
– They enabled waste
– They alienated truth tellers
– They promised a better future than they
could ever deliver
THEY WERE OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY
(and their management teams were too weak to overcome their limitations.)

17. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
McKinsey: Improvement Needed
in Management Capability in IT
Source: McKinsey Quarterly, Nov. 2008, “IT’s Unmet Potential”, Exhibit 4

18. High Productivity  Fixed Price  On Time  Within Budget  Defined Processes  Metrics
Takeaways
• Enable CIOs to predict the future, identify and eliminate
waste, encourage truth telling and deliver the future
they promised – on time, on budget and with high
customer satisfaction.
• BY enabling the IT management team to acquire, manage
and react to fact-based feedback from the ‘front lines’.
• Managers may need more training, but trained or not, they
need the fact-based feedback – in the most relevant,
critical areas - to make the right decisions in a timely
fashion.