Executive coach Dina Lichtman speaks with online media expert, Elizabeth Osder

As an executive coach who works with CTOs and CIOs in all kinds of companies, I often run across leaders who fail to embrace the newest, cutting-edge technology. It might be out of fear or lack of knowledge, but the outcome is the same … lost opportunities with their internal users and external customers.

The fact is, businesses have forever changed, and a world of more nimble, cost-effective tools, coupled with new consumer behavior, means that there is no turning back. As many have stated and current research indicates, CIOs face a unique challenge in dealing with these massive disruptions.

In light of these trends, I recently spoke to Elizabeth Osder, President of The Osder Group — an e-commerce and marketing consultancy — about the latest technology trends and cloud applications. In particular, I wanted her view of what impact the cloud will have on CIOs. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.

“Old World” Thinking

Elizabeth says that CIOs have traditionally viewed the world in an “Old World” way: “The priority and framework for a good CIO had been to innovate information sharing in ways that cut costs and increased productivity. CIOs tended to ask questions such as these:

• What computer networking system do I need?
• What's the best telephone solution?
• Where do I store my data; how do I keep it secure?
• How do I manage a large IT staff and run a support desk?
• Do I buy, build or partner?”

“New World” Approaches

By contrast, Elizabeth says, CIOs who understand the current environment understand the following “New World” approaches: “The digital world is making it increasingly easy to partner and borrow services that are low cost, and sometimes free. Old-world, big-business goals that required huge budgets can be achieved in a variety of new-world ways. Often, IT is now about solving new problems - moving from project management to product development.” As a result, she adds, “new products may emerge, and there is no clear set of instructions. Good digital product development is agile and nimble, and innovation results from testing and learning in the market.”

It’s not a matter of throwing out everything that came before, she says: “IT still needs to carry out some of the traditional goals along with the new. Above all, [IT executives] need to operate more nimble and experimental organizations.”

As an example, Elizabeth notes that in the media industry, “early digital efforts were often owned and defined by IT. Currently, the technology teams that support new product development are often separate, more nimble, and unencumbered by traditional IT. The difficult question is: can a CIO play in both worlds or are they wedded to Old World IT practices?”

Elizabeth asks “how CIOs-- who are used to buying and building to clearly defined specifications-- will approach new challenges in the consumption of information.” For instance, how will they adapt to and invent solutions using wireless devices, iPads as sales tools, and real-time alerts? Will they be ready for these rapidly moving innovations?”

Implementing Change

Based on her research and experience, Elizabeth explains why it's hard to implement change: “CIOs have big staffs that deal with technology they have purchased or built. What do you do with these staffers as consumerization takes hold? Is this a time for massive layoffs or for retraining? How do you innovate with cloud-based systems when many middle management jobs rely on running large infrastructure systems?” How do you secure new technologies?

Among the examples of Old World vs. New World options, she cites are: Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs; shared servers vs. Dropbox; telephone systems vs. Skype; FaceTime and iChat; email vs. real-time chat; cloud computing vs. infrastructure. They must ask themselves: “Do I rent space that flexes with my need, or do I build and maintain a castle?

Moving to the Cloud Painlessly 

Osder Group offers solutions and says that those who experiment, test and design using various solutions can learn and explore new ways. It may also help if an organization creates an independent innovation group and freeing members from the hierarchy of the old organization.

A final bit of advice is for CIOs to talk to their internal and external customers, see how behavior is changing, and develop products to make work more efficient.