6. Fail to understand relationship between technology and business
"This is critical," Robbins said. "Being able to understand how technology and business can work together to promote the company's goals and objectives should be the greatest value the CIOs and CTOs can offer to the company. Because he's the only one who can do it."
And the key to understanding how technology and business can work together is to understand the company's highest-priority goal, Robbins said. "The goal of business is not technology," he said. "It's not to develop new technology. That goal is to make money."
Robbins pointed to a decision Victoria's Secret made concerning its Web site. He said he knew a woman who wanted to purchase lingerie online. She headed to Victoria's Secret's Web site, but found the browser she used didn't work at the site. She was disappointed, and Robbins figured Victoria's Secret should also have been disappointed because the would-be customer had planned to spend $400.
"I happen to know the CTO of Victoria's Secret," Robbins said. "So I called him up and talked to him about this." Robbins said what this CTO told him was a surprise. The CTO had investigated whether to try to make its Web site friendlier to this browser and soon found that the company would never make enough money to justify the effort. "They know they're alienating some customers," he said.
However, the Web site does welcome the more popular browsers, so they know what they might be losing in sales will be more than offset by the money they didn't spend and the money they will make, Robbins said. In other words, just because you can use technology to make something expensive happen doesn't mean you should. Wildly unsuccessful CIOs never grasp this.
7. Don't communicate well with nontechs
"They forget that most people just don't get technology," Robbins said.
What is worse, unsuccessful CIOs often hire other techs with this same very bad habit, Robbins said. "If you don't hire technology people who can communicate with nontechnology people, or they don't train people to communicate with nontechnology people, then you miss a great opportunity to prove your department's worth to the company," he said. "In my mind, you need to couple the ability to provide value and communicate that value as a whole."
