Most of us agree that the CIOs must be strategic in their approach. After all that is the function of an Officer of the company. One would also hope that this will be reflected in the organization we create... Those of us who had to go through the grind of an MBA can hardly forget the lesson that generally the structure follows a strategy.
Given that, how many of us managing hospital IT really get to have strategy person in the department? I have seen some of my CIO friends having as many as 20 direct reports. For a small organization that seems a lot. And there is no one doing strategy and planning etc among these 20 odd folks.
I recently met a CIO who created the role of a VP of Strategy and Planning. This office will also include the PMO. Of course this particular CIO has about $100 million in budget and runs a system with roughly $3 Billion in revenues.
As we go down the revenue scale, it’s hard to justify a senior person to manage strategy. Considering the amount of work ahead of us just to keep the systems going, how do we create and maintain a strategic focus? Your thoughts are most welcome..
