Three golden rules of success for CIOs

Luke Mellors has been the CIO of London's prestigious hotel The Dorchester and is now CIO of travel and bookings agency Expotel. While his last two positions have focused on the travel and hospitality sector he says they have also taught him that some rules for success are universal. Here he lays out his three golden rules for getting ahead...

My personal experience and discussions with other colleagues suggest to me that there are some hard and fast rules any CIO can follow in a new or even existing role to ensure that his or her department is successful.

In fact there are just three words that can create credibility, inspire thought leadership and attain IT departmental stability and strategic alignment.

They are: commitment, business and innovation.

The order in which the words appear is important and as with any process it is something which must be followed.

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Commitment: Any IT department needs to solidify its commitment to its tasks and operations. Commitment to me is a performance-managed department that has a commitment to its user base and is evaluated against that.

Essentially the business must have internal support systems that conform to aggressive SLA standards.

Develop a customer service-driven agenda and attitude in how the job gets done.

Implement proper processes and governance supporting deliverables in relation to projects, development, implementation and support issues that provide structure but are geared around quick, flexible delivery and not needless and often complex bureaucratic administration.

Most importantly don't be afraid to make promises but ensure they are promises that can be kept.

Organisations need to be more customer service-based. IT departments that are motivated to satisfy the customer base are proud to deliver what they say they are going to deliver. With this commitment comes much needed credibility within an organisation which in turn allows a CIO to start navigating the business and work towards the ultimate prize of innovating the business.

Business: CIOs need business acumen both in understanding what their operations do and what they need to achieve to be successful but also in the language of business and finance. CIOs in today's world need to know a little about a lot to be successful and this is more imperative outside the IT space than within it. Build relationships with key individuals across the organisation. Show empathy towards business challenges and while not always saying 'yes' to projects and initiatives be careful about saying 'no'.

Try to get the business driving IT developments and implementations as much as possible and allow IT to act not as the owner but the facilitator of the deliverables.

I often try to get businesses thinking outside the box by asking them, when an opportunity is identified, to express to me their vision - not in technical or technology terms but in operational and business terms. What does the perfect world "look like", "smell like", "what do we do" in this world.

These are relevant operational questions. Get those answered and then plan to enable technology to realise the business' vision, which will gain its support and commitment to facing the challenge. The use of cross-section focus groups, working parties and good outward flow of communication always assists in getting IT seen not as a fixer but as an enabler and partner.

Successful CIOs are not seen as fixers but as designers and architects.

Innovation: If you can attain credibility through commitment and develop relationships with the business through working with, rather than for, the business, then you may be provided with an opportunity to make IT part of the strategic platform of your company and assist in leading and developing this.

Be cautious though, because if you try to innovate without having the commitment and business relationships solidified you will likely fail, either because of poor delivery or because you lack the support and empathy from the business to succeed.

Innovation is easy, energetic and enjoyable when you have a sustained commitment to deliver and the ear of the business, in that it listens to you and respects you. Respect is earned in this world but leads to bigger roles, bigger impact and better results for any IT department - this is what I live by and what I believe any CIO needs to concentrate on to be successful and to lead companies to attain competitive advantage through effective IT management and innovation.