Hello and a very warm welcome to our latest edition of smartCIO EMEA – the magazine for Chief Information Officers and other IT leaders across the region.
Regular readers will know that our mission is to share the latest technology and leadership insights to help create and educate a community of current CIOs, and those aspiring to move into the role.
For this edition, we have focused mainly around a topic that has attracted a great deal of interest recently – the CIO/CFO relationship. Let’s be clear, this subject has always been a topic of conversation, analysis and opinion, certainly for as long as I have been involved in the technology industry (30 years, thanks for asking!).
As with many discussions, however, the critical nature of the CIO/CFO relationship has come under new levels of scrutiny recently. The pandemic created an imperative for time-critical technology change, which aligned perfectly with the existing demand for digital transformation/acceleration happening in most organisations.
These factors have led to the need for more collaboration and closer relationships between these two vital business functions. From the need to fundamentally re-engineer business models and ways of working across the entire company, through to CFOs recognising they need to transform their own functions and the critical need for technology to facilitate this. The simple fact is that for most organisations, this needs to be a close, collaborative and trusted partnership.
As always, we welcome Martin Veitch, Editorial Director at IDG Connect, to provide us with some interesting thoughts on this. One quote sticks out to me in terms of ‘why’ this relationship is central to business success:
“First, because the CFO is often the second-most powerful person in the organisation and the CIO may be the biggest change agent.”
First, because the CFO is often the second-most powerful person in the organisation and the CIO may be the biggest change agent.
We then have some conversations with CIOs and CFOs – Doctorlib’s CIO discusses its digital transformation and the role of the CIO/CFO relationship. We also sit down with the PGA European Tour’s CIO, CFO and CHRO to chat about the importance of this triumvirate in driving digital transformation. Eagle-eyed (no golf pun intended) readers will note that we interviewed the CIO in issue #1, so this is an interesting update to that conversation.
And finally, we spoke with Workday Co-President and CFO, Robynne Sisco, to hear her views on the dynamics of this important relationship with the CIO.
There are other great articles inside! So please, have a read.
Our aim for smartCIO EMEA is that it provides you with insight, opinion and discussion around the key leadership, business and technology topics that are relevant to you and your role in modern business.
We look forward to you joining the conversation. Please give us feedback, suggest new ideas, offer your own expertise and insight. We can’t wait to hear from you.
Grant Currie Editor-in-Chief
