The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) can mean many different things to different organizations. The question has become: Is it necessary for the CIO to be a business leader or a technology innovator?

For Chris Bedi, CIO of ServiceNow, Inc., it is a little of both. Newly appointed (he started six months ago), Bedi explained his thoughts on the role of the CIO to Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), cohosts of theCUBE from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during ServiceNow Knowledge16.

A wide range of responsibilities

During the event, Bedi led a CIO Decisions Panel that covered topics from leadership challenges to how to effect change and getting the right culture in IT. “It was more about the human element as opposed to the technology part of it,” he said.

Bedi believes that CIOs have a base job running technology infrastructure of a company, but he also feels that it is necessary for the CIO to up-level their responsibilities. “I can tell you what I take responsibility for, the overall velocity of our business,” he said. “How fast can we run with everything? Hiring employees, closing our books; every single process in the company is powered by an IT platform, so IT is in a unique position and has a birds-eye view of the organization to help drive velocity. And velocity is everything.”

He also noted that maximizing productivity of everyone within the company, measuring results and providing great customer experiences fall under the CIOs purview.

The thumbs down on consensus management

During the CIO Decisions Panel, Bedi explained that former United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates believes that consensus management does not work. And while technology companies feel this is an important part of the culture, Bedi was swayed by his argument that consensus is not a requirement. He understands that things won’t move fast enough and leaders need to sometimes drive the change quickly.

Strategic themes

There are six strategic themes that Bedi follows as a CIO:

1. Growth, working to create sales and marketing effectiveness;
2. Velocity, driving velocity through every department and manically going through every business process;
3. Analytics to measure and improve the business;
4. Security or what he calls “The gift that keeps on giving for every CIO.” His mission is to secure the business’ and clients’ data;
5. Team development to find and cultivate talent; and
6. Operation rigor, driving outcomes that deliver a benefit.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more  of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of ServiceNow Knowledge16.

Photo by SiliconANGLE