Higher Education

Becoming a CIO isn't easy. Nor should it be. But for the right person the role of CIO is one of the most valued and rewarding jobs you can have. So, what skills do you need? And what roles should you consider pursuing to get you to the top? This article first appeared on computerweekly.com Skills – it’s all about the business A Chief Information Officer in the fullest sense is someone who sits on the executive committee or board, reports to the CEO, and is responsible for contributing to and implementing the business strategy, through technology. Not all CIOs we come across meet these criteria – some, for example, don’t actually sit on the Exco or board.  Our latest Nash Squared Digital Leadership Report found that around 30% do not - the fact they are not Exco roles means that their value is in operational, rather than strategic, matters. It’s the leap to influencing strategy that is where the real transition to executive seniority is made. When it comes to the key attributes of a CIO, it’s really all about qualities and attributes that help the individual contribute to strategic business value through technology: Strategic Vision: The ability to align IT strategy with business objectives, and a vision of how technology can be leveraged to deliver real commercial and competitive advantage. Leadership and Management:Experience in leading large teams and managing complex projects. For this, strong communication skills are a must. Technical Expertise: A solid foundation in IT, including infrastructure, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies. Business Acumen: Understanding of business processes, finance, and how technology impacts the bottom line. Change Management: Experience in leading organisational change, particularly in the context of digital transformation. Eight roles to take you to the top For anyone with their sights on becoming a future CIO, there are a number of senior IT leadership roles that naturally improve an individual’s chances as and when the opportunity arises. Here are four ‘clear and obvious’ IT leadership positions that may provide a route to the technology summit: 1. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Overview: CTOs focus on the technological strategy and innovation within a company. They lead efforts in technology adoption, product development, and R&D. Relevance: The CTO role is closely related to the CIO, with a focus on external-facing technology, making it a natural pathway to the CIO role, especially in tech-driven companies. To make the jump to CIO: A CTO will be a prime candidate for CIO and it will be a logical, even lateral step in some cases. 2. IT Director/Head of IT Overview: IT Managers or Directors oversee the day-to-day operations of the IT department, including infrastructure management, software development, and IT support services. Relevance: This role builds a deep understanding of the organisation's IT landscape and the ability to manage teams and budgets, which are critical for a CIO. To make the jump CIO: For a Head of IT, becoming a CIO could be the next step up, most likely at a similar organisation in the same sector where they have the experience and knowledge needed. 3. Chief Data Officer (CDO) Overview: CDOs manage data governance, data management, and analytics initiatives. Relevance: In data-driven organisations, managing and leveraging data effectively is key, making the CDO role a strong precursor to the CIO position. To make the jump to CIO: A CDO is more likely to become a CTO next, rather than stepping directly up to CIO (although it could happen). Any data-driven business would naturally be an environment where they could flourish – and potentially take the top role. 4. Head of IT Security/CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) Overview: The CISO is responsible for the security of the organization's information systems and data. Relevance: With the increasing importance of cybersecurity, experience in this area is becoming more valuable for aspiring CIOs. To make the jump to CIO: It’s unlikely for a CISO to become CIO as their next role – they need to hold a senior position with a broader strategic remit first. But that deep knowledge of security could be a great positive for them further down the track. Other high-potential roles There are other positions too that are a little less senior and may come earlier in an individual’s career, which in my experience can be high-potential development roles towards the top. 5. Director of Digital Transformation/Innovation Overview: This is in itself a fairly senior role that focuses on driving digital transformation initiatives within the organisation, including the adoption of new technologies and digital processes. Relevance: Leading digital transformation efforts helps build the strategic vision needed for a CIO role. To make the jump to CIO: Transformation is a great grounding because it brings in so many aspects of systems, IT and business performance. It may just be a case of the individual broadening their experience where they can and looking for an organisation with a CIO vacancy that has also undergone a transformation. 6. IT Program/Project Manager Overview: These professionals manage large-scale IT projects, ensuring they are delivered on time, within budget, and meet business requirements. Relevance: Project management experience is valuable for a CIO, who needs to oversee multiple large initiatives and ensure alignment with business goals. To make the jump to CIO: The path to CIO is likely to involve the individual building their career up through the transformation/programme management route to director level, gaining more years of experience, and then looking out for a suitable opportunity. 7. Enterprise Architect Overview: Enterprise Architects design and implement the IT infrastructure and systems that support the organisation's business strategy. Relevance: This role requires strategic thinking and a comprehensive understanding of both business and technology, key skills for a CIO. To make the jump to CIO: The most likely route for a technical expert like an Enterprise Architect is to move up through the technical side, setting their sights on becoming a CTO. From there, a CIO role could follow. 8. Office of the CIO Overview: Office of the CIO acts as a liaison between the IT department and other business units, ensuring that IT services align with business needs. Relevance: This role builds the ability to bridge the gap between technology and business, a crucial skill for a CIO. To make the jump to CIO: These teams are already well engaged with the role of CIO and the business, and for the right person it could be a natural step to the CIO role itself further down the line. A more open field Our research at Harvey Nash shows that routes into technology are changing - more people are coming into it from non-technical backgrounds, and many don’t have a university degree, entering in other ways including through apprenticeships and self-learning.  The field is opening up and there is more flexibility in career paths. A love of technology, a drive and determination to succeed, and the ability to inspire and motivate people and teams are the pre-requisites. So, if you aspire to become a CIO, take heart that there are multiple different routes through which this could happen. Yes, you’ll need to work hard and build a track record of success – and it may also be worth thinking about additional qualifications like an MBA or relevant certifications (e.g. ITIL, PMP, CISM) – but the ways in which you could fulfil your dream are growing in number as the modern business and IT landscape continues to evolve. About the author: Helen Fleming With nearly two decades of experience within recruitment and technology, Helen is the Executive Director of our Search and Specialisms solution at Harvey Nash, and is responsible for managing our technology specialisms and C-suite community from both a candidate and client perspective. To find out more about Helen, view her profile here. Or if you would like to get in touch about technology roles and hiring, please get in touch here.

London, October 24 2024 - Bev White, CEO of the leading global technology and talent solutions provider Nash Squared, has been recognised in the Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) Staffing 100 Europe list. The list, which comprises of C-suite executives, tech specialists, lawyers and operations experts, celebrates those that have guided their organisations and the staffing industry through turbulent times with an eye on the future. Bev White joined Nash Squared in February 2020 and has seen the business through the covid pandemic and economic downturn.  In the last 12 months in particular, Bev has led the organisation’s work with the UK government to promote the Digital Support Services T Level as well as driving the use of artificial intelligence, with investments that will benefit the business both now and in the future. Bev White said of her inclusion in the Staffing 100 Europe list: "To be included in these lists is affirmation to me that Nash Squared and the people that are part of it are making a big difference to the industry. The staffing industry changes lives, and it makes me very proud that we do this on a daily basis. It’s something that we take very seriously." Find out more about SIA’s Staffing 100 Europe list: https://www.staffingindustry.com/lists/staffing-100-europe/2024-staffing-100-europe

Our CEO, Bev White, talks to Olympic silver medallist diver Leon Taylor about the parallels in sport and business. This article first appeared on ComputerWeekly.com. Right now, over 10,000 athletes are taking part in the world’s greatest sporting event. Whether running, swimming, jumping, or – and heaven knows how they do this – backflipping, the Olympics represents the absolute pinnacle of human physical achievement. Parallels are often drawn between elite sport and the world of business. There is no doubt there are differences – for instance, if every person in my own company, Nash Squared, were a budding 100m sprinter with dreams of gold, we’d get one thing done really well, and then fall apart as the thousand other things that need to be done are left by the wayside! But that said, there are similarities - to take people with raw talent and raise their game (literally, in this case) is surely something that every business leader aspires to for their team. The Olympic motto - “Faster, Higher, Stronger - Together” - could apply equally to the business environment as to the sporting arena.   Three learnings to lead a high-performance team It’s something I’ve been reflecting on recently - and this included the opportunity to talk to Leon Taylor who won a silver medal in 10m diving at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Since then, as well as being the “voice of diving” on the BBC, Leon has become a mentor to other athletes and an executive coach. From our conversation and my own thinking, three points stand out: 1. “Love, not fear” in a culture of continuous improvement and coaching. One of the biggest parallels between business and sport is that if you don’t continually improve you will effectively move backwards as the competition raises its game. Often, this improvement is about small things - the concept of marginal gains or what Leon termed as “precise interventions” that add up to make a decisive difference.   Hand in hand with this, you can’t have continuous improvement without someone offering feedback, insight and advice, whether that’s a line manager, mentor or coach. Here, Leon made an interesting point. What sport does really well is give feedback on the performance - not the person. It’s essential that feedback is not taken personally, as a criticism or affront. “In sport, performance feedback nudges more to love than fear,” Leon said. “It’s not personal, it’s designed to help the individual unlock their potential and do better. You’ve got to avoid that fear factor or sense of failure.” We can learn from this in business. Often, people shy away from feedback because they are nervous about what they might hear; while if a manager suggests someone gets a mentor, the reaction can be “Why, what have I done wrong?” Instead, we should embrace the mentoring culture and use it to point up opportunity, not threat. Harnessed well, it can truly be transformational. 2. Success starts in the mind. You can’t perform well in anything, physical or intellectual, if your mental balance isn’t right. This means adopting a positive mindset, visualising success, clearing away self-doubt and barriers - and it also means looking after mental wellbeing. Anyone can get overwhelmed in our always-on world. Leaders and managers, in fact, have a duty to look after themselves - because otherwise, how can they properly lead and mentor others in their teams who rely on them? As Leon said: “The effects of stress and poor mental health are usually very trackable. It starts as feeling worn out and can quickly move to being burnt out. I’m encouraged that more leading athletes and also business leaders are speaking out about it. Making space for mental wellbeing opens the door to better performance.” 3. Highest performance comes when team and individual are in balance. Most Olympic events are individual competitions - but no athlete could succeed without the team around them. UK athletes compete as Team GB which has developed its own set of values and identity. As Leon observed: “On the back of my Athens medal is a lot of text in Greek - but really it should be a list of names of everyone that helped me get there: my coach, my team mates, physio, nutritionist, and many more. High performance depends on both support and challenge from others.” In the business environment, the challenge is to keep the team and individual in balance. You need to ensure there is a strong sense of team, with everyone understanding the big picture and the collective end goal, how they fit into it, and how they can help and be helped in achieving it. But within that team ethic, you need to give individuals the latitude to perform and excel according to their own strengths. It is a difficult balance to get right, but can be crucial to success.   Three personal tips for leaders Business leaders need to enable their team members to excel - but this hinges as much on them as the people they manage. I would encourage leaders to reflect personally on three things: It’s your responsibility how you show up. Your own attitude makes a huge difference and rubs off on others. Be the change you want to see and it will have an amplified effect. Your words are important - your behaviours even more so. Think about your actions and what example you’re setting through them. These speak more powerfully than anything you say. For example, you may talk a lot about the importance of work/life balance - so do you need to send that email at 10pm or can it just as well go in the morning? Give people the tools they need to fly. Or dive, run, jump, throw… As a leader, one of the most important roles you have is to make sure people are equipped to do the job they’re there to do. Give them the right tools, the support they need, and the feedback to get better - and you will be amazed how well people perform.   Watching these Paris Olympics, I am sure we will all be moved and inspired. Think about how to translate that into the everyday at work - we can’t all be Olympians, but we can all aspire to perform at a higher level than we’ve ever reached before.

With a new Labour government in place in the UK, Nash Squared CEO, Bev White, looks at the importance of digital skills and how they are nurtured. This article first appeared on computing.com. It is easy to say the tech sector is important for the UK economy – it’s a statement few people would disagree with. The real challenge for the new Labour administration, as it gets its teeth into implementing new policies, is that to have a thriving tech sector, the UK needs a thriving digitally skilled workforce. Skills shortages have long been a feature of the technology industry, both in the UK and globally. Our Nash Squared Digital Leadership Report, which has been running for 25 years, routinely reports significant skills challenges that technology leaders say are holding them back. This spiked in the wake of the pandemic which created a massive need for digital skills. It has fallen back somewhat since - but still, in the 2023 survey 54% of digital leaders said that skills shortages were preventing their organisation from keeping up with the pace of change. Digital skills aren’t only needed for specialist technology roles in the IT sector - they permeate almost every level of employment. When unveiling its digital strategy in 2022, the previous government observed that 80% of all jobs advertised in the UK require digital skills. Estimates suggest that the digital skills gap costs the UK economy as much as £63 billion in lost GDP. Building on success including AI So where should this new UK government focus its efforts? Firstly, it’s crucial that technology doesn’t become an area for ‘party politics’ with the government undoing or changing things simply because the current policy came from a party of a different colour. Where policy is good and proving successful, it should be maintained and built on. One primary example of this is around the technology of the moment - AI. The previous government secured a real coup in holding its AI summit at Bletchley Park, which was attended by political and industry leaders from around the world. This established the UK on the world stage and gave us the potential to take a leadership position in terms of AI policy, security and governance. Indeed, the UK has already become a strong hub for AI - home to a third of Europe’s AI start-ups, twice as many as any other European country according to the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). The UK now has a staggering 1,300 AI companies with a collective turnover of almost £1.47 billion. Clearly, it should be a priority for the new government to continue this momentum and support AI development across the UK. This can be a game changer and wealth/employment creator long into the future. Education and diversity of talent AI is already here - but the talent of tomorrow is still growing up and moving through our education system. The key point here is that technology should be presented and talked about in line with what it actually is - a truly exciting, intrinsically relevant area that feeds into every aspect of business and society. It should attract young minds from all backgrounds, demographics and types - to create a truly diverse and inclusive talent pool. However, this diversity is something that the industry also struggles with. The proportion of women in technology remains frustratingly low - just 14% of technology leaders and only around a quarter of the workforce as a whole in our latest Digital Leadership Report. Representation from those from ethnic minority backgrounds also seriously lags, at only around 25%. We have to change this - otherwise the talent pool will be too restricted to provide businesses with the flow and throughput they need. A diverse workforce can bring so many benefits - as seen at Bletchley Park itself where, in 1945, fully three-quarters of the workforce were women. Diversity is part of our heritage and this is something we need to remember! GCSEs and T Levels An example of where things are not working is the Computer Science GCSE. This used to be called ICT but the name and the syllabus were overhauled a few years ago. A study by King’s College, London found that whereas 43% of those taking the ICT GCSE in 2015 were girls, there had been a “stark decline” to just 21% taking Computer Science in 2023 - with King’s concluding that this was because the syllabus had become narrower and more technical in scope. We have to find ways of boosting diversity across all its forms. The way we talk about technology is crucial to attracting the talent we need - so let’s keep bringing out the dynamic, real-world applications of technology in everything around us and show young people that the opportunities are vast, whatever their individual strengths and skillsets. This is something I was delighted to be able to expand on when I was invited to speak at the Women and Work All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) last year. One educational development from the previous government that commendably moved in the other direction, making technology more accessible, was the creation of T Levels including several in STEM and technology related areas. We are big supporters of T Levels at Nash Squared, and inputted to thinking around cyber security for one of the T Level modules. T Levels are more practical in their focus than A Levels and include an industry work placement. They are a great innovation, but they have struggled in some instances to attract industry placements (a key feature of the course) and in the case of digital focused T Levels (Digital Business Services, and Digital Support Services) the proportion of girls being awarded their qualification in 2023/24 was similar to the proportion of girls already working in technology. In short, T Levels are not moving the gender diversity needle. As a result, a priority for the new government should be to build on the excellent foundations that have been laid and look for ways for making T Levels even more effective. Apprenticeships, training and upskilling Diverse routes into technology are another key aspect, widening other pathways alongside the traditional university route.  Apprenticeships and training programmes are an important part of this - and yet as most acknowledge, the existing Apprenticeships Levy system is not working as well as it could. Large amounts of the levy are returned to the Treasury each year unused.   I therefore welcome the new government’s proposal to widen the levy into a new Skills and Growth Levy that would give businesses more flexibility in the programmes they invest in. However, the devil will be in the detail. It will be up to the government to design any new scheme wisely to ensure maximum take-up. We also need to see adequate funding for later career training and upskilling (such as digital bootcamps) aimed at groups like mature returners to the workforce (parents, carers) and those simply looking to branch out in a new direction. There is lots for the new government to aim at. In an arena as fast-moving as technology, there is no time to stand still. I hope that the government will move forward at pace to keep building our position in the technology of the future. As businesses, we also have a responsibility to engage and participate - so I call on business leaders to get involved and play their full part.