What is the future of the CIO role?

Consultant and former head of IT at Durham County Council Phil Jackman wants small businesses to think before recruiting

Phil Jackman has worked in the north of England for many years - most recently heading ICT services at Durham County Council (DCC). He is passionate about the region, now acting as an associate board member for Dynamo: an initiative to promote and grow north-east England's technology sector. Now a freelance consultant, he has clear views on the future of the CIO role.

When we talk over the phone, it is just one day after Dynamo's annual conference in Durham. Jackman is keen to stress the importance of technology outside of the hubs of London and Manchester: "We've got some fantastic stories here - we just need to tell them better," he tells us. "The only technology company in the FTSE 100, Sage, is right here in the North-East - and also a lot of start-ups."

It's much more about collaboration and co-creation, rather than turning up at nine and leaving at five.

Dynamo is not the only project that Jackman is involved with; having left DCC in May, he now describes himself as ‘guerilla working', which is a form of freelance consultancy. He says, "It's where small bands of people come together and get on with something, then disappear back into the woods. It's about coming together around an issue, building the right team, getting on with it, and then going back to whatever it is that you need to do… It's much more about collaboration and co-creation: working with your customers and suppliers rather than turning up at nine and leaving at five."

Jackman envisions his work (consisting of the areas of problem exploration; values and strategy; and organisational unblocking) being on a short- and maybe medium-term basis with each company, but no longer processes. He believes that guerilla working is best-suited to organisations that are in the more mature or ‘scale-up' phases: "Not those that are growing, but the ones that are growing up."

A freelance CIO is an intriguing concept, but how does such a strategic role work on a short-term basis? In response, Jackman brings up the example of an internal conflict: employees can often be wary of pointing the finger of blame at their boss (organisational unblocking). "Having a facilitator who can drop in and challenge that behaviour is more likely to get results; and if I'm not around permanently, I'm not a fixture." He adds that, with an external viewpoint, he can more readily identify problems in a workflow.

According to Jackman, smaller businesses need to more fully evaluate their need for a CIO before recruiting someone full-time. Rather than saying "We need a CIO," instead think, "What's the problem that getting a CIO would solve?" "Are you too caught in your organisational structure," he asks, "and the only way that you can solve this is to have someone in charge of the technology? Or innovation, or creating ideas? Recruiting may not always be the right thing to do."

Is this method of working the future of consultancy, and the CIO role in general? Jackman thinks that it could be especially helpful for small businesses, like those above: "That translator role is always going to be needed. In big organisations and projects, that's always going to be a permanent or medium-term role. In smaller organisations, it might be a temporary role, one that you only do every six months."

We named Phil Jackman as one of our Top 100 CIOs this year. Are you on the list?