Industry veteran Deepak Singh, executive vice president of T-Mobile, says character and experience make for the ideal CIO

Deepak Singh is a 20-year industry veteran who has worked in roles from software developer to project manager and head of IT at a number of companies in manufacturing, finance, utilities and the pharmaceutical industry.

Now an executive vice president in the Business Excellence team at communications firm T-Mobile, a pan-European role that steers the firm’s information systems strategy, governance and change agenda, Singh is convinced that the only IT leaders who can break through the glass ceiling to enter the boardroom are the individuals facing it.

‘The only one responsible for your career is you – no matter how nice your boss is, it is up to you not him to proactively manage it,’ he says. ‘That’s why self-motivation is an incredibly important factor in making it.

After all, the higher you go, the less opportunities there are, so only the most exceptional and determined people can get there.’

For Singh, the ‘perfect’ CIO issue has only just come to the fore.

‘It’s only the last two or three years that have seen the emergence of what I call real CIOs – hybrid technology and business people who are directly helping to shape business strategy and direction.

‘And this has to be the long-term goal for all CIOs. Just as many current IT jobs are so easily outsourced, IT itself is becoming more commoditised. Twenty years ago you could get competitive advantage from implementing accounting software, now you can buy it off the shelf. So we in IT have to get away from the pure technology agenda to the business one,’ he says.

What does Singh think the contenders for the CIO position should be able to bring to the table?

‘In terms of the ideal CIO CV, I’d be looking for three things,’ he says. ‘One is credibility – is the person established at a senior level in a big brand environment? Two, ability to influence – have they demonstrated the ability to get access to the board and shape its thinking? And three, delivery. It is one thing to spend two years crafting a brilliant IT strategy, it is another to see it through to full implementation and be able to show real return on investment.’

But if many of these requirements seem steep, Singh also has sympathy with the culture of expectation that many IT managers face. This is an often unspoken part of the challenge so many people come across in the business environment, he says.

‘In IT we are too used to being the supplier – we are simply asked to deliver or fix something by our client, really just order takers. The challenge is to go beyond that and, instead of blindly following what the business wants, get out there and proactively understand, influence and shape business thinking,’ he says.

‘CIOs who are too focused on technology just don’t find that easy to do. But in the longer term that is dangerous for their employment health. It is the guys who can rise to this challenge that will survive.’