The first 100 days of a CIO’s tenure are pivotal in establishing credibility, aligning with organisational goals, and laying the foundation for long-term success. This structured plan emphasises preparation, assessment, relationship-building, and early wins.
Pre-Day 1: Foundational Preparation
Preparation begins before the official start date. Key actions include:
- Interviewing Predecessors: Understand team dynamics, challenges, and past initiatives to avoid repeating mistakes.
- Learning the Organisational Structure: Identify whether the organisation operates as functional, projectised, or matrix-based to navigate authority and collaboration.
- Assessing Organisational Mode (STARS Framework): Determine the organisation’s mode (e.g., startup, turnaround, realignment) to tailor strategies for listening, assessment, or immediate action.
Days 1–30: Listening and Aligning
The focus during this phase is understanding the organisational environment:
- Introduce Yourself: Communicate your vision, strengths, and approach while fostering trust and transparency.
- Engage Stakeholders: Build rapport with business leaders and IT staff by understanding their needs and expectations.
- Competitive Analysis: Examine industry trends and competitor strategies to position IT as an innovation driver.
- CEO-CIO Alignment: Utilise diagnostics to align IT strategy with business objectives, ensuring clarity on innovation goals and top priorities.
Days 31–60: Diagnostic and Early Wins
This phase transitions from listening to delivering value:
- Cultural and Capability Assessments: Use frameworks like the Competing Values Framework to understand cultural dynamics and identify areas for adjustment.
- IT Management & Governance Diagnostic: Conduct surveys to evaluate IT maturity and align processes with organizational goals.
- Quick Wins: Address high-priority, low-effort improvements to demonstrate immediate impact.
Days 61–90: Strategy Formation and Communication
As the first 100 days draw to a close, solidify plans and communicate a clear vision:
- IT Staffing Assessment: Analyse team efficiency and alignment with strategic priorities, identifying opportunities for realignment or growth.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Conduct surveys to gauge satisfaction and refine IT initiatives accordingly.
- Vision, Mission, and Values: Finalise these guiding principles to shape IT strategy and ensure organisation-wide alignment.
- Post-100-Day Plan: Create a detailed roadmap, highlighting completed initiatives, quick wins, and future objectives.
Final Thoughts
The first 100 days provide a crucial window that establishes a strong foundation for IT leadership. Balancing listening, assessing, and delivering creates momentum for long-term success while ensuring alignment with organisational goals. The roadmap offers a comprehensive guide to navigate this transition effectively, focusing on stakeholder engagement, strategic clarity, and measurable impact.
As the first 100 days is packed with orientation, alignment, exploration and relationship development CIOs usually need external support to help develop adaptive and forward-looking business-aligned IT strategies.
Overture have developed the Business Technology Strategy (BTS) Framework to help for just this scenario. Please take a look at this at the framework and (Overture IT Strategy: Operational Excellence to Create Business Value) and get in touch for a follow up consultation.