Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

Finally, the last point to bring this together is determining how to prevent bad CIOs/CTOs from entering or staying in an organization.  This is a really tough thing to deal with because by the time the hiring is complete, most of the staff below have little to no power to do a thing about it.  At my previous company, the CIO was hired, as rumored, when the CAO met him at the local gym.  The top IT directors all got a chance to meet the guy and him being a salesman type was able to convince enough people that he had the right skills to handle the job.  Of course, as the article indicates, this was all part of the "wolf in sheep's clothing" ploy.  The guy was pretty much going to get fired/kicked out of his cushy job after his company was acquired by another company.  So he had to slink through the doors to find the new position.  Not long after, the expats were sent back home and even the CAO was fired.  What bitter irony.

Now, one of the biggest things I think that was made was not letting the non-executives get a chance to meet the new executive and provide some form of feedback.  I think companies make huge mistakes by not forcing executives to go through a round of drilling from regular staff.  The reason why I think this is good is to see whether or not the staff themselves trust the new executive.  I mean, he/she will be their boss after all and people should care about who's on top.

Another problem is that most of the staff are made powerless to do anything against the CIO.  He's the CIO for godsake's!  Call me a Marxist or socialists, but this is the primary reason why I think a union should be created for IT.  While executives have the primary responsibility for leadership, it's usually the staff that do all the real work and true leading.  I think that the staff should be able to collectively protest the actions of the CIO without repercussion.  If there's one thing is probably stereotypical of most geeks, it's the fact that most are selfish, self-preserving and too individualistic.  Ask them to take a stance with others and they'll just back away fast.  If the numbers of geeks out there had stood up to Hollywood, MPAA, RIAA, the loss of jobs, the dot-com bust, etc. things certainly would be a lot different.

Part of the prevention should be a feedback system that forces HR to evaluate executives on a regular basis.  Companies say that they have these feedback systems but it's rare to see any company take action and satisfy the demands of the workers.  I mean, it's silly seeing long time, highly valued employees leave because of draconian measures employed by an incoming IT executive.

Also, contracts for these CIO/CTOs types should be pretty well spelled out.  There should be certain key goals in place that are measurable within a time limit.  You can't just let people waltz in over promise and under deliver.  Part of the contract should involve a penalty if those goals are not satisfied.  I mean, being an executive should mean more than earning a high salary.  These days public companies enforce rules over CEOs and CFOs in terms of strict financial disclosure.  CIOs and CTOs should equally be penalized either in terms of salary, the inability to work for a similar position within a specified time frame (which happen but it's more industry specific) or something.  In other words, a CTO/CIO position should mean more than money, but responsibility to the organization and shareholders alike.  Without this level of accountability, anyone can get into such a position and it's just plain unfair for everyone else.  So you need to discourage this behavior and seek people who earnestly want to achieve something for the organization rather than pad their wallets.

Unfortunately, I'm beginning to believe that the cause of bad CIOs/CTOs is not completely because of the CIO/CTO.  Instead, this behavior is the result of the company's organizational behavior in encouraging such people in participating.  Good companies tend to focus on the key issues and getting the right people.  A standard, rigorous interview would prevent scenarios like this from occurring.  Companies where you bear witness to such situations more than likely have low standards, which allow people to sneak through the back door.

So in closing, the last piece of advice in preventing a bad CIO/CTO is simply not to work for one.  Figure out if a company is good or not even before stepping one foot inside.