To succeed post-COVID, banks will need business models that accommodate for increased competition, customer experiences and customer expectations. That’s where chief information officers come in.
What does it take to succeed (more importantly – advance) as a CIO in the banking industry?
Make yourself indispensable. Become a revenue center by meeting your executive team with solutions to problems they did not know existed. Evolving compliance demands are a constant reminder of the need for technology solutions that move with the shift toward breachless banking.
“We set ambitious change goals, balance risk-reward, measure outcomes and recalibrate, where needed,” said Delta Air Lines EVP and CIO Rahul Samant in a recent Deloitte study on the value technology leaders provide. Forfeiting daily duties, like troubleshooting or patch management, banks with a strong technical foundation benefit from a CIO that spends their time on big picture thinking.
- Set ambitious change goals: Set goals that align with your bank’s strategic plan. This might include defining productivity, performance, and professional development goals for yourself and your direct reports, determining the appropriate level of involvement within fintech associations or groups, or creating reliable pipeline for leadership talent.
- Balance risk-reward: Today’s CIO is a visionary leader, focused on the future, and fully engaged with technologies that drive innovation and provide a competitive advantage. Use a measured approach that incorporates secure, reliable technology and industry best practices. Don’t experiment; the integrity of your customer data depends on each vendor you hire, their vendors, and their vendors’ vendors.
- Recalibrate, where needed: Measure the outcomes of what works well and benchmark them against what works for others. Use secure banking technology to automate your IT processes, reduce downtime, and minimize risk and impact. The coronavirus pandemic, for example, caused financial institutions across the nation to quickly pivot. Banks with seamless, cloud computing technologies easily transitioned to working from home, while others were left catching up. Your CIO advantage is to stay ahead of the curve.
Technology is the future of your financial institutions if you are on a path for growth and profitability. With secure technology solutions at the helm, working for you, you can lead tech-driven change.