Interview? Quotes? Sorry But No Thanks
By Pankaj Maru
Mumbai, Jan 2, 2008

IT is an important cog in the business wheel, but what about the people who look after this prized asset of the company? They remain concealed behind a cloak of anonymity. What are the reasons for this? Why do CIOs refrain from media exposure? These are the questions for which CXOtoday set out to find the answers.

"It's wrong to take it as a blanket statement. In fact, some CIOs are very approachable and would love to share their knowledge for the benefit of the industry," so says Rajendra Dhavale, Consulting Director of Computer Associates (CA).

Intriguingly the reasons for this perceived 'shyness' are more strategic than they would appear at first glance. According to Zain Hussain, Advisor (IT) of Maytas, "There are 2 reasons for media shy nature of CIOs. Firstly, the innovative deployment of IT that deals with strategy and secondly deployment of solution that is linked with business."

"The first reason is that the strategy can't be revealed or discussed openly with others since now IT is more than a simple operational issue. Once someone's intentions are known there will be a bee-line to his door for that pie," Hussain explained.

Further, most of them (vendors) try to get their foot in the door without having the right requirements to meet the need but enough to hamper progress, he added.

However, Satish Sayal, CIO of NIIT Technologies, thinks that the strategic aspect of the CIO's job has become much more prominent and so he or she doesn't shy away from the media or the external audience anymore.

The main reasons for staying away from the media spotlight could in fact stem from the nature of their job itself.

"IT infrastructures of most enterprises are confidential, data-sensitive. Giving information about one's technical setup should be considered and disseminated with caution as this can lead to a Pandora-box effect in the future," said Dhanalakshmi RK, Head (ISG and Technology), Aditi Technologies. She is of the opinion that fear of being misquoted and adlibbing for the spokesperson may be some of the concerns that make CIOs hesitant. Also, different enterprises have different hierarchical structures making it difficult for CIOs to speak out in front of the media.

However, Dhanalakshmi did stress that whenever there are occasions to talk or interact with media, CIO/IT heads would always be willing to share their views and thoughts.

Satish Pendse, CIO of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), thinks this is more of a relative issue. When compared with heads of other departments, say, marketing & sales, HR, etc., they would indeed appear to be media shy according to Pendse.

"Traditionally IT has been the back-room function; although it's changing now. Many of the CIO's are inculcated in this backroom driven mindset that prevents them coming out openly in the media. Appearance in the media also requires CIOs to spend considerable time before-during-and-after. At times this becomes a limitation. Some organizations also have restrictive policies with regard to addressing the media. For example, media can be addressed only by the CEO's or the designated persons from the PR departments of those organizations," said Pendse.

Over here it would be interesting to add our own experience while researching this article. Of all the CIOs/IT heads we contacted, a little more than 50% were willing to reply to our queries on this issue.

Taking a synopsis of what we have discussed here, the main reasons for the media shy nature of CIOs would appear to be:

* IT is often the competitive advantage tool for organizations. Many of the organizations, especially the ones operating under fierce competitive environment therefore prefer not to discuss about their IT. This puts a break on the media appearance of the CIO's.

* Most companies prefer to have specialized departments for answering media queries. Also, the traditional notion of viewing IT heads as 'back-office' operators, hampers media interactions.

* The fear of being misquoted is ever present, especially when you are handling a delicate and important business component like IT. Most CIOs would rather remain incognito than risk being misinterpreted by the media.


(With added inputs from Priyanka Akhouri, Aarti Shah and Abhinna Shreshtha)