The 2008 ASEAN CIO study presents findings on key aspects of ASEAN CIOs current function and outlook for the future in today’s global economy.

INSEAD

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In today's economy, the functions of the CIO have become more complex and more multi-faceted. His or her performance is not measured anymore against his/her ability to provide the best IT solutions to his/her company or organization, but also against other dimensions, including financial, strategic, managerial, and—increasingly—environmental. The modern CIO is expected to perform as a member of the organization's management team, to excel in technology-related areas, and to display leadership and strategic capabilities.

To reflect this complex new environment around the CIO, INSEAD has developed an original framework, known as the 'Three-Quotient Model' (or 3-Q Model). Those three quotients respectively measure the quality of (1) overall company performance, (2) technology excellence, and (3) leadership.

During the second half of 2007 and the earlier part of 2008, a large survey was carried out in the ASEAN area, to collect the views of CIOs on key aspects of their current functions, as well as on their expected evolutions. Using the INSEAD 3-Q framework, the survey findings were aggregated into three discrete quotients of excellence in CIO leadership.

For ASEAN as a whole, the Technology Quotient came out the highest, primarily because of an impressive degree of ICT (information and communication technology) proliferation across organizational functions. In addition, according to 79.2% of CIOs in the survey, their organizations actively incorporated IT in the design and development of new products and services.

Beyond this broad result, the Study yielded the following key findings:

In ASEAN, excellence in leadership lags behind technology excellence

Excellence in leadership lags behind technology excellence across ASEAN. This finding was strongly echoed through in-depth conversations conducted by INSEAD analysts across the region, and confirmed by organizing data from the online survey into INSEAD's three-quotient model of CIO leadership excellence. Although, in tandem with global trends, 94% of CIOs in ASEAN observed that the CIO role was becoming more important in the business, 76% agreed with the statement that "most organizations in ASEAN see IT as a cost centre."

CIOs view leading employees as a key capability. Critically, talent management has emerged as a key ingredient in achieving leadership. In the survey, however, talent development ranked bottom as both a top management priority and a current source of performance excellence. Only 29.9% of CIOs in the survey felt that their organization’s performance in talent management was stronger than their industry's.

When survey findings were aggregated using the INSEAD three-quotient model of excellence in CIO leadership, companies across ASEAN scored the lowest in the Performance Quotient, which measures the overall performance of firms. The Technology Quotient came out the highest of all three INSEAD quotients measuring excellence in CIO leadership. This was rooted in an impressive degree of ICT proliferation across organizational functions. In addition, according to 79.2% of CIOs in the survey, their organizations actively incorporated ICT into the design and development of new products and services.

The CIO community in ASEAN remains heterogeneous

Like ASEAN itself, the CIO community in ASEAN is diverse. IT maturity and adoption levels vary widely from country to country. ASEAN's mix of developed and developing countries presents technology leaders in the region with a dramatically divergent set of growth prospects and IT systems requirements. Furthermore, there are perceptions of persisting differences between the CIO role's dynamics in local vs. multinational companies (and within MNC companies, between Asian, European and US firms), private vs. public sector, and large vs. medium-sized companies.

In line with the region's macroeconomic developments, ASEAN CIOs viewed China and India not only as a competitive challenge (67.1%) but also as a source of management and technology talent (57.6%) and a source of R&D and innovation (also 57.6%).

CIOs are reporting advancement in IT-business collaboration

93.4% of CIOs in the study rated the promoting of collaboration between IT and the rest of the business as important or very important. 76.7% of CIOs acknowledged that prior experience in business operations was becoming an increasingly important consideration when recruiting a CIO. Encouragingly, the IT—business collaboration increasingly trickles down from CIO level across the organization.

On average, ASEAN CIOs spend about 30 per cent of their time on future planning for IT investment and strategic planning. Increasingly, they recognize managing vendor relationships as a crucial component of their responsibility. In the words of one CIO interviewed, "you have to know what will be important tomorrow & lay the foundations for it today."

The strategic components of the CIO role are taking up a growing share of CIOs' time. On average, ASEAN CIOs reported spending about 30 per cent of their time on future planning for IT investment and strategic planning, which includes managing vendor relationships. In the words of one CIO interviewed, "you have to know what will be important tomorrow & lay the foundations for it today."

Change management, business process, customer satisfaction are becoming increasingly important in CIOs' activities

Business process was reported as a crucial building block in ASEAN companies' technology architecture. 79.6% of CIOs reported that their organizations were using IT capabilities to enable process improvement.

The emphasis on business process has also brought to the fore the customer: Improving internal and external user experience and satisfaction was ranked among CIOs' top priorities. The ASEAN customer is typically receptive to new technologies and interfaces such as personal networking sites. Therefore from the CIO's perspective the pace of technological change is sometimes overwhelming. Improving internal and external user experience and satisfaction was also ranked among CIOs' top priorities. The ASEAN customer is typically receptive to new technologies and interfaces such as personal networking sites. Therefore from the CIO's perspective the pace of technological change is sometimes overwhelming.

Managing change is a key priority for ASEAN CIOs. They are also keenly aware that change in an IT organization must be managed within a proper framework of corporate and IT governance. CIOs across ASEAN also pointed out that change management entailed tackling the entire culture of what they saw as an increasingly regional and global organization. Correspondingly, cross-cultural communication and management skills have risen in strategic importance.

With 22.5% of CIOs in the survey coming from banking, insurance and financial markets, regulatory compliance was ranked as high-performance; yet it was not viewed as one of the top management's top three operational priorities.

The CIO role—and its evolution—remain complex, and require further research

Growing recognition has not lessened the complexity of the CIO's role. 81.2% of respondents to the online survey drew on resourcefulness as one the strengths of their leadership approach. Although most CIOs praised the move of CIO functions towards a higher strategic level, some saw this development as adding to the CIO's 'regular workload'. While becoming more strategic, the CIO's role remains highly complex and multi-faceted: 81.2% of respondents to the online survey mentioned resourcefulness as one the strengths of their leadership approach. Although most CIOs praised the move of CIO functions towards a higher strategic level, some saw this development as adding to the CIO's 'regular workload'.

Anticipating the strategic make-up of CIOs role's five years from today is on the minds of many CIOs in ASEAN. In-depth interviews showed a persistent degree of anxiety over CIOs' prospect once some of the major current IT initiatives in business process and change management have been completed.

The present research also points at avenues for further investigation, including in the areas where ASEAN companies and CIOs have a strong development potential, namely awareness, agility and skills. Enhancing the knowledge of existing strengths and weaknesses at the local (national) level will be the key to turning lessons into action.

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