Are you a CIO or venture capitalist?

According to Deloitte Australia’s Tech Trends 2014 report, disruptive forces such as crowdsourcing, mobile, big data and cybersecurity are forcing CIOs to manage their technology portfolios similarly to how today’s leading venture capitalists do.

“The digital disruption of business models, combined with a bewildering array of consumer technologies, is challenging the way CIOs plan and finance the information technology for their organisations,” says Deloitte Consulting Managing Partner, Technology Agenda Robert Hillard.

“Innovative CIOs are deploying venture capitalist (VC) strategies and tactics to manage their technology portfolios and these CIOs are elevating their own roles to that of a business partner and strategist.”

The report identifies how CIOs are adopting a number of VC strategies to implement a ‘portfolio mindset’ while managing the business of IT:

Creating investment strategies: Much like VCs rely on investment strategies to guide their efforts, CIOs may be able to manage their own portfolios of IT investments more effectively by developing strategies that help them better understand how IT projects affect IT assets in the short and long term.

Evaluating asset performance: CIOs should prioritise initiatives that are mission critical and identify which hardware and software assets can support growth.

Let the market pick the winners: As CIOs evaluate emerging technologies, it may be impossible for them to predict which ones will deliver the greatest return until they’ve been tested on either staff or customers.

Promoting successes: By approaching the IT leadership role in a more strategic, VC-like way - and less like technologists - CIOs can help the business side better understand and appreciate the value and scope of IT’s contribution.

Building agility: VCs typically approach market, economic and other types of disruption as givens. Indeed, agility - the ability to respond quickly and effectively to change - plays a critical role in everything VCs do.

“The traditional CIO role is about providing reliable, cost-efficient technology to meet known business demands. In a rapidly changing business world, those business needs cannot be predicted in advance. The most successful CIOs need to cover more eventualities with a portfolio, like a VC, rather than a small number of big bets,” says Hillard.

Image courtesy Plantoo47 under CC.