6 ways CIOs should diversify leadership skills

Doing a great job in your current role is table stakes for modern CIOs. The most successful digital leaders embrace new challenges in situ and in fresh working environments, and with research reporting the average tenure for any digital leadership role to be about five years, the ability to move seamlessly into new opportunities has never been more crucial.

Evidence also suggests that CIOs who think outside the box and move between positions, employers, and industries better develop their leadership skills and produce benefits for their teams, businesses, and end customers. From generating novel solutions to embracing different cultures, here are examples from six specific industries on how broad experiences help diversify CIO leadership skills.

1. Formula One: focusing on teamwork produces novel solutions

Dan Keyworth, executive director, performance technology and systems at McLaren Racing, says leading technology in the fast-paced world of Formula One has fostered new skills.

“Being in a high-octane environment, you learn how the tools you provide to people make a material difference,” he says. “In some organizations where operations are a little slower, people don’t understand the tangible impact technology has.”

Keyworth says success in F1 is about using data to find a competitive edge. Having spent nine years with technology specialist Fujitsu, he joined McLaren in 2017. And during his time in motor racing, McLaren has continued to improve on the track, culminating in last season’s successes, where the team won the Constructors’ Championship and Lando Norris won his first driver’s title.

“That’s been an incredible journey for me, because as we’ve gone up the pecking order, I’ve realized how critical our technology is, and where there are opportunities to evolve and develop,” he says.

Keyworth says the other skill he’s developed in F1 is collaboration. “I think many organizations can be quite hierarchical, and you don’t find that in a Formula One team,” he says. “We’re in a room trying to solve problems, so ranks are removed and we go after challenges together. That approach has taught me a lot about human connection and leadership. Success is about creating a flat structure, getting around the problem, and getting stuck into something, no matter what the rank.”

2. Recruitment: welcoming change develops new leadership skills

Ankur Anand, group CIO at technology and talent solutions provider Nash Squared, joined in June 2023, after nearly six years at Manpower Group, where he rose to regional CIO and head of transformation for Europe. Before this role, he spent 15 years in senior technology positions at financial services giant Citi.

“The depth of experience I got from those experiences was enormous,” he says. “I felt I could take that knowledge into a mid-size organization with a huge appetite to grow. I wanted to create an impact based on all the learnings from my career.”

In his three years with Nash Squared, Anand has focused on creating a single view of customer data, establishing change management processes, and embracing emerging technology. Moving between organizations prepared him for the transformation he oversees.

“People can underestimate their ability to transition into change and required behavior in terms of how you react, manage people, and work with stakeholders,” he says. “It’s an enormous but positive change because you start adapting to different operating models and developing different leadership styles. What works in one environment with one business doesn’t necessarily work in another.”

3. Content services: being adaptable marks you out for success

Joel Hron, CTO at global content and technology specialist Thomson Reuters, was previously CTO at tech startup ThoughtTrace, which Thomson Reuters acquired in 2022. Hron joined the firm as part of the acquisition process.

“This role was a chance to lead a global team of 5,000 and shift the mindset into a more agile, entrepreneurial one,” he says. “To move an organization of that scale and size culturally was also something I saw as a challenge and a great opportunity.”

Taking on a fresh challenge is nothing new to Hron. After initially aiming to work in education, he attended graduate school, but was drawn to real-world research and development, particularly programming, modelling, and forecasting in the petroleum industry. After his stint in the startup sector, he says switching to Thomson Reuters honed his adaptability.

“I think that mindset has been forced into me over time because of the variety of roles I’ve had,” he adds. “All the small things I’ve learned come together to build the intuition I have today. When people ask me what should I do next, I tell them just be opportunistic, say yes more than you say no. If you trust yourself and feel it’s not the right thing, you can do something else. But say yes and give yourself the chance to learn something new and like something you didn’t expect.”

4. Property: pulling different levers hones capabilities

Richard Corbridge, CIO at property specialist Segro, says the current emphasis on AI and data means the digital leadership role is having a renaissance. “People seem to have landed back on the fact that the CIO is the executive chef in the kitchen,” he says. “I think that gives us a good opportunity to shine.”

One crucial factor in this renaissance, he adds, is the consumerization of technology fostered through mobility, the cloud, and now gen AI, which means LOB colleagues are as eager to learn about technology as their IT peers. From now on, digital leaders will be expected to source great ideas from across the organization.

“CIO is a more social role than 10 years ago,” he says. “You need to be in your business, not aside or on top of it. That positioning means a CIO who’s going from industry to industry is going to pick up knowledge of different demands.”

Rather than being experts within their own domain, successful CIOs are members of the senior leadership team that drives business transformation. Corbridge says his own broad experiences, including leading IT for the NHS, high-street retailer Boots, and the UK government’s Department for Work and Pensions, have helped him develop as a CIO.

“It’s been enjoyable taking big healthcare project experience to the private sector to see what levers I can pull differently,” he says.

5. Technology: embracing new cultures creates energy

Nick Pearson joined Ricoh Europe as CIO in 2023, after being head of IT platform at Vodafone. He’s also held senior tech roles at RS Group and PepsiCo, eventually becoming UK IT director. He says moving sectors helps leaders diversify skills, particularly when embracing new cultures.

“This is the first Japanese company I’ve worked for,” he says. “While it’s a loosely federated business, there’s a culture of Kaizen and continuous improvement. That’s a different approach to Vodafone, where people were focused on achieving 10 times the impact, productivity, or growth of projects.”

Pearson says one of the things he’s learned at Ricoh is that risk appetites can vary across cultures. “There’s a lot more rigor in project tracking and statuses in a Japanese firm than you’d expect in a Western company,” he says. “The approach is data-rich: the more information the better. In a US-style company, the board often just wants to know if a project is on track, and the rest of the deliverables are your concern. It’s super-energizing, and I’ve gained knowledge by experiencing different cultures.”

Pearson says being a CIO in the technology sector has also helped him appreciate the importance of product portfolio management skills. “In an IT services company, where the technology is changing so often, success means thinking about how you continually evolve your portfolio without cannibalizing your star product,” he says.

6. Travel: moving between domains keeps you sharp

Huy Dao, director of data and machine learning platform at travel specialist Booking.com, has spent the recent part of his career helping tech-focused companies like Zwift, Zillow, and now Booking exploit their data assets. Earlier in his career, he worked for one of the world’s biggest technology companies.

“I spent 18 years at Microsoft where we were primarily providing tech solutions, such as Office,” he says. “What’s interesting for me now is I get to learn about a new business domain, and that keeps me on my toes.”

As part of a central group that provides data and ML capabilities to Booking, Dao ensures his team has the right tools to complete their work. He also helps employees build and operate highly governed, high-quality data-enabled products.

“My role centers on how technology is applied to travel. I aim to understand how the business works, how our customers feel, and how our partner relationships are going,” he says. “The industry is very interesting, and that keeps me motivated to learn and contribute every day.”