Expanding power of CFOs is a threat, says CIO

CIOs should be independent of the CFO, and be nothing less than CEO of the IT business, says Rocco Labellarte

The growing power of CFOs threatens the CIO role, according to a prominent local government technology leader.

Rocco Labellarte, until recently the CIO at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, told Computing that CIOs need to be independent of the CFO.

"CIOs need to have percentage capital and revenue budgets based on the overall organisation size. They should be independent of the CFO and act as third-party partners to the organisation.

"They should not aspire to being anything other than CEO of their IT business, within the wider organisation," he continued. "Until this happens they will never truly be able to be agile or deliver solutions that reflect modern, systems-thinking approaches."

Labellarte's comments follow concerns that CIOs are increasingly reporting to CFOs, who are growing in power within businesses in part due to an increased focus on costs brought about by several recessions, and exacerbated by broader economic fears brought about by Brexit.

According to Labellarte, who is now assisting several local government organisations to set up shared services schemes, the trend of CIOs reporting to CFOs will not change in the near future.

"I think this will not change significantly until the millennial generations start to occupy positions of power. It should then get better," he said, adding that his biggest fear for the CIO role is that it will "lose relevance".

He described his top three priorities on which CIOs should focus in order to keep relevance to the business as operational excellence, cost effectiveness, and showmanship, which he explained is "the ability to communicate simply and clearly, market a concept or plan, and be convincing to a variety of audiences."