If a person joins in a high rank, other employees automatically start to behave in a way as if they have known him for years. S/he gets the full support from the management, peers and subordinates, regardless of his professional or educational background. However, the same is not true for a person joining in a lower rank. Do organizations discriminate between people based on their job titles?  

A few months ago a CIO twitted: "It's hard to be strategic with your pants on fire." Most CIOs will resonate with this phrase. CIOs are less strategic and more 'fire-fighters'. This is not a generic comment but based on facts and experience. Those CIOs who are moving out of technology manager's role, and taking up strategic position, are preparing for the long-term.  

It is high time organizations look beyond the obvious while searching for reasons behind employee exits. The answer lies in taking proactive steps to address employee concerns. I urge business leaders to spend some time reading and analysing exit interview forms. In the long run, this could help them retain their start performers. In today's technology-driven world, we should not lose the human touch.  

As a leader, providing a sense of meaning to your employees is arguably your most important role. Assign projects, no matter how small. Praise individual employees as often as you can. Extend responsibility, since implicit in responsibility is trust and regard. Help employees understand their place in a larger effort that transcends procedures, tasks, and measurable outcomes.  

Lately there has been a lot of publicity and visibility on the fact that CIOs are being or going to be measured on business metrics, many of which they do not control or influence directly or indirectly. As opposed to the traditional ways of measuring CIO's performance, should s/he be measured on revenue, profitability, customer acquisition or retention, product availability? 

Being a 115 year old organization, there were too many processes and systems that were built over a period of time. These processes were layered over each other and were too complex. We wanted to consolidate our disparate HR systems onto a single platform, standardize HR processes and streamline enterprise data collection across our group companies. Both HR and IT were equally accountable to make this happen. 

Cloud or no cloud, it is time for the CIO to morph a little bit from being a technology-focused professional to someone who can provide business value. It would be good if the CIO becomes more aware of the business domain he operates in, and participates a lot more in business discussions. It is also important for him to interact with the customers and the sales force to get a better understanding of the ground realities of business. 

Many of us say that it is necessary for CIOs to tap and exploit opportunities, demonstrate clear and strategic understanding of the core business functions, key organizational issues, competitive landscape, and bottom line results. On doing so, they say that the path leading to the CEO position will be much easier. What do you think? 

While creativity exists in individuals in every organization, it is important leverage and create value out of it. In Vodafone, we created a platform and a process for submitting ideas and attached the workflow. The response was enormous. We had 26 creative ideas in the first hour of its launch. It has come a long way since. Today, the potential of the ideas in the pipeline is worth more than Rs. 100 million.  

To achieve success, the CIO has to improve business communication and alignment skills. There is a need to identify everyone who has a direct hand in influencing the IT, people from lines of business, functional experts, and change managers. The CIO should pull in people with the right knowledge, skills and experience needed.