He uses a similar technique in the business where he says it is important the CIO uses power sparingly. "You do more things through process. You agree on the standards, the architectures and the processes and then once they are established you use your authority to ensure they are followed." But again that authority is exercised gently, all the time seeking the business buy-in.
"There are a few times - for example in a crisis when you have production problems - when you would inform not consult because of the need to deliver a service. You have to do the execution, that's what keeps you in the job," Kogekar says.
At Challenger, Goh has likewise implemented a framework that makes it very difficult for a businessperson to implement a technology platform without his consent. "Not too long after I joined, an executive decided to implement a platform because the vendor said it was free. Now the software may have been free but the risk was not. I confronted the executive with this. No matter if it was a good solution or not, it could have compromised the corporate governance. It would be a bit like the CIO making a financial decision without consulting the CFO."
In terms of enforcing his power, Goh sees the corporate governance frameworks as the ultimate ally. If they work properly he will not have to exercise power; if he does have to exercise power it is almost an admission that the system has failed. If all technical investment decisions are required by the governance model to be endorsed by the CIO then that power base cannot be eroded.
Well, it cannot be eroded as long as those decisions are right - and Goh understands that the only way to keep his power is to keep adding value to the business.
It is the same at Investa Property Group, another financial services business where David Miller is CIO. Although he acknowledges having power over the IT decisions, he says you still need the support of the business. "I don't have carte blanche. I'm accountable."
Investa emerged out of Westpac five years ago and has been on a fast growth trajectory ever since, with 750 people now, all of whom are heavily reliant on the information systems. Miller attributes much of his influence today to his history with the business. Originally hired as a consultant with both business planning and information systems responsibilities, he has continued to have clout even though he relinquished the business strategy role when he became CIO two years ago. Miller admits that it is possible the power he enjoys today may be a legacy of his time as a consultant during the start-up years, and the fact that the firm still has the same CEO who remembers him in that role.
Although power was in some ways thrust upon him, he believes that to maintain it, you have to really understand the business and come up with the solutions that match. Because if CIOs do not do that they will quickly learn that their power is far from absolute. "Business looks to you to develop solutions; if not, then the business will go off and develop things at tangents. Power is fragile and you are only ever as good as your last project," Miller says.
One of the ways IAG's Issa builds his power and influence is to concentrate on the big projects, not on fiddling at the edges of IT with incremental upgrades. "My view is that because we have limited resources the dollars should be spent on the big things, where it will make a strategic change to the organization." In order to do that, he needs his seat at the executive table so he has a grasp on where the firm is headed strategically. "The relationship with the CEO is very important. I'm lucky because I know Mike [Hawker, IAG CEO] and he knows me and he trusts me. He's seen me do these things before."
One CIO who knows he performs a critical function in the organization, but baulks at the suggestion he wields absolute power over IT, is Centrelink's Wadeson. "In an organization like ours, where an Act of Parliament decrees that the CEO is responsible to the minister for efficiency of the organization, then I don't have the greatest power," he says. Wadeson's reticence might, however, be an issue of semantics, because he does admit that as CIO he has "considerable influence".
"Still, when you have an organization like ours, with a lot of people who are competent, then power is not a word I would use. In Centrelink there is a broad range of people with an understanding of IT and who make that contribution," Wadeson says. "I do think this arrangement is more common in government, but it is becoming more common in other organizations where it would be wrong to say that IT is a tool or a backroom function. It's more akin to the relationship that Qantas has with its planes. A lot of people here have views on IT and they are well informed views."
Kennedy believes that CIOs get "explicit power" in terms of the role they are taking on. "But implied power exercised through your influence is the real power. So, for example, you have no explicit power over the company direction but do you have implicit power over it - yes. That's the power that the CIO can choose or not choose to use."
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