Beginnings
In his contribution last month, Peter Hagedoorn described very well what the orientation of the board of the CIO Platform was at the time. I had been on that board for some time before I briefly, for a little over a year, took over from Peter as chairman. Much of what he wrote also drove me. As CIOs, we saw each other all the time and everywhere, and then it is quite natural that you move a little closer together as a profession. After all, the apprenticeship for CIOs did not exist. It was the practice of horizontal non-competitive discussion between companies and organisations that was very important for every ICT or Information Management officer in a company to share best practices with each other. The CIO Platform was a good vehicle for that purpose.

Position of the CIO
On top of that, I was not that concerned with the position of the CIO, because it has always been crystal clear and obvious to me, and had been so in practice since 1996, that I reported to the CEO. It should be no different in any company. Reporting to the CFO on what I consider such an important business function as ICT, the main driver of process innovations, efficiency and growth, customer values or acquisitions, should not be put under someone whose main job is financial interests. In many a company, that suspension turns out to be an inhibitor in permanent employment. With your finance colleague on the board, you should be able to exchange views, not hold your hand up.

Development of CIO Platform Nederland
With this personal angle, my main interest was in business-organised colleagues, both in the Netherlands and in Europe. Particularly in Europe, I have indeed seen the combination of purchasing power in the alliance of French and German CIOs who unitedly set their sights on SAP, for example. Then something got moving that was useful for everyone, not only procurement benefits but also better procedures etc. In the Netherlands, the role of the CIO Platform Nederland lagged behind. Not least because the bureau of the time traditionally focused its attention on gaining additional members for the Platform and issues such as describing all kinds of functions in the CIO field. Both issues were useful for many a colleague, but fell outside my sphere of interest as far as I was concerned. I would have liked to give the CIO Platform a more prominent place in the layers of government, but, looking at myself, did not get around to it with enough energy.

Experiences
What I enjoyed were the various board meetings with excellent outlooks for everyone and the members. The resulting events staged by the office also mattered. However, it was obvious that the board members all had too little time to really make a difference. The challenging work and travelling to European meetings all had to be done in between the daily work. An unfortunate set-up for such an important mission we felt we had as board members. On top of that, very much to my regret, when Peter Hagedoorn left, it became clear to me that in case you left the CIO position, you could also no longer participate within the association. I have always considered that a major flaw of the Platform. You throw overboard buckets of managerial experience and positive energy that you could easily have tied up in some role for charity. I hope this is now a thing of the past.

The future
In the lectures I had the opportunity to give with some regularity at some universities in the years after 2010, I foresaw that in the coming period until 2020, the role of the CIO would partly disintegrate into types such as CTO, CDO or CMO. Partly because of that ever-existing tension between business drive and finance. A ‘CIO role’ in terms of content and naming adapted to the specific company. Or adapted to the business unit with the most interests in an ICT-driven business model. Think, for example, of the product and services digitisation budgets in marketing (‘the CMO’). These more specific ‘CIO roles’ will also again place the role within internal and external business information more unambiguously with the CFO.

If the CIO Platform wishes to continue playing a significant role into the future, which I wholeheartedly wish for them, a permanent broadening of the membership base to an increasing number of relevant professional groups in diversity is bound to be a key focus. The CIO as a ‘one-and-only’ spearhead, partly enshrined in its naming, may well become a limitation in the Platform's appeal. This also means that a more top-strategy and Europe-centric focus is necessary. Looking at the immense dependence that we as the Netherlands and Europe, at all levels of governance for that matter, have allowed ourselves to be pushed onto by the US, a very urgent change agenda is currently before us.

I wish the CIO Platform to respond to it quickly and adequately. It will, with the right marketing, certainly be recognised as a very welcome player in society.

Good luck!

Best regards,

Hennie Wesseling
Chairman CIO Platform Nederland 2008 - 2010