Posted by Vaughn P Fox on August 10, 2001 at 18:19:14:

In Reply to: Re: CKO Reporting Structure posted by Bruce Jones on August 07, 2001 at 14:27:58:

Chandrasekar,
There are many different organizations out there. Each organization has different organizational designs and different relationships between people forming those organizations. A small business may not afford to have a CKO, but a mid size and large organization/corporation are most likely wasting resources if they do not have a CKO…or a person performing CKO functions. There are many opinions as to what a CKO does, skill sets required to be effective and relationships between CKO and other senior leaders. The following info provides one more suggestion that will get rounds on target if you consider the following issues:
1. Clearly define key functions performed by a CKO.
2. Make sure senior leaders recognize value added by having a CKO on the team.
3. Constantly be aware of changes in the operating environment, to include mental mindset of people forming your organization. If senior leadership does not recognize value added by having a CKO on the team, it may be difficult to initiate forward momentum at the enterprise-level.
4. Ensure the CKO has the authority to coordinate required action and issues at the enterprise-level.
5. Demonstrate progress through evaluation criteria directly linked to critical tasks achieving organizational success.
6. Be aware of political rice bowls, attitudes and intent of senior leadership. A CKO is often viewed as a threat until senior leaders realize how actions and issues addressed by a CKO help each senior leader to do a better job performing key activities they are responsible for initiating, evaluating and completing.
Although every organization is different, I often use an example of a CKO interfacing with the CEO, CIO, CFO and COO. In mid size to large organizations a CEO often has a strategic focus, a COO has more of an operational focus, a CIO is concerned about providing primarily information technology and network infrastructure to support current and planned initiatives and a CFO is focused on providing financial resources necessary to support current and planned initiatives. What most organizations don’t do well is identify “what” they need to do before they begin developing or applying resources. The primary focus for a CKO is to work w/ senior leadership to validate key activities achieving organizational success and resources necessary to satisfy those needs. A CKO should be functionally smart, technically savvy and understand senior leadership intent, guidance, operational concept(s) and be able to communicate well with people planning initiatives as well as those responsible for implementing useful solutions. A CKO ensures people in that organization are able to share information in a format promoting knowledge they need to achieve desired results. Actions initiated by the CKO ensures the CFO has information required to gain knowledge needed to understand the significance of future initiatives, so that he or she can make decisions influencing the proper balance between current growth and future expansion…or the COO has information promoting knowledge he or she needs to make decisions influencing implementation of actions and issues capable of achieving desired results in an ever-changing operating environment…or the CIO has information that he or she needs to make decisions influencing the proper implementation and planning of technology solutions to support the volume of data required to satisfy information exchanged by people responsible for completing tasks satisfying key activities achieving organizational success…or the CEO has information that he or she needs to gain knowledge required to make key decisions shaping the future of the organization. The action by the CKO enables people forming the organization to share information promoting knowledge they need to link strategic plans to business operational success, while promoting unity of effort throughout the organization. If the CKO concentrates on technology without considering the integration and impact of training skill sets, people, information exchange, procedures, security, organizational design and required relationships between people forming the organization to satisfy key activities, solutions will most likely not work...at least not efficiently. The functions performed by a CKO create bridges allowing people to exchange information across organizational, functional and political boundaries to promote knowledge they need to achieve desired results while constantly evaluating progress. I hope this information promotes knowledge you need to succeed. Respectfully, Vaughn.

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