🕗 It’s 8:14 a.m. in Bordeaux.
Sophie stares at her screen, a black coffee in hand, her expression a little harsher than usual. Three one to one meetings in forty eight hours with her regional lieutenants. Three conversations. Three worlds. And the same question pounding in her head : how can anyone still talk about an “information system” in the singular?
As Group CIO of a French aeronautics company operating in about ten countries, Sophie is marking her first year in the role. Her career path is anything but typical. She first rose through the supply chain, learning to manage flows, inventories and emergencies. She became a project manager, then went on to lead local operations in Asia, particularly in China, where she spent several years. It was only after joining the operations department at headquarters that she was propelled into the CIO position.
Her mandate ? Simple on paper : align IT strategy with the group’s overall strategy. A great mission. And strong sponsorship within the executive committee. But now that the appointment festivities are over, the real challenge begins, one of power plays, turf wars, and egos.
The North American CIO repeated it again yesterday, in an almost condescending tone:
“My region is growing by 15%. The CEO is delighted. Why should I waste time coordinating my actions with the group?”
The Asia CIO, on the other hand, seems to be living on another planet, absorbed by his own local innovation challenges.
As for the French CIO, he’s playing along, but reluctantly, as if each global standard were another threat to his room for maneuver.
Sophie knows: there are three information systems in the same company. Three cultures. Three decision-making chains. Three ways of understanding IT value.
But Sophie is resilient. She doesn’t intend to give up and will show that she, too, can make her mark for the good of the group, despite the pitfalls.
Let’s dive into her reality and her strategy.
1) Underestimated difficulties
The most frustrating thing for Sophie isn’t the chaos. It’s that it’s invisible to others.
Take the IT budget, for example. A basic mechanism in any structured group. Well, here, each region builds its own. In the United States, everything is grouped into a single budget that combines infrastructure, licenses, cybersecurity, and even the IT team’s canteen. In France, OPEX and CAPEX are carefully distinguished, but outsourced HR costs are forgotten. In Asia, each subsidiary uploads its data to an Excel spreadsheet sent at midnight on December 28th.
So yes, of course, there are different local realities. Labor costs in India are nothing like those in Belgium. But without a common budget framework, how can we compare? How can we measure performance? How can we manage?
Last week, the French CIO presented her with contagious enthusiasm a new Industry 4.0 program. An ambitious project. Technically interesting. But also… solitary. No formal connection to the group’s roadmap. No shared perspective with other regions. Sophie asked: “Have we looked at what’s already being done elsewhere in the group?” An embarrassed silence. He hadn’t taken the time.
And when she began to set conditions: governance, pooling, methodological framework, the tone became tense. The French CIO had a sponsor: the head of Manufacturing Europe and Manufacturing France. Very influential. And, incidentally, the CEO’s golf partner.
And the service catalog ? A wasteland. The last time she dared to ask the Asia CIO how many applications were running within her scope, he shrugged: “Between 200 and 300? Maybe 400?”
It’s impossible to have a clear map. Even less so an application lifecycle.
And when she started talking about technical debt, he smiled politely, then moved on to the urgent demands of the business.
“We can’t say no, you understand.” No, actually, she doesn’t understand. Or rather, she understands only too well: we let it happen for years, without guidelines, without a framework, without governance. And today, she, Sophie, has to lay the foundations… in a group worth billions of euros.
2) Impose yourself without imposing
The dilemma is subtle, but omnipresent: how to establish a framework without stifling initiative?
How to talk about global alignment without giving the impression of wanting to govern from an ivory tower in Bordeaux?
Sophie doesn’t want to create a technocratic, cold, centralizing IT department. But she also knows that total autonomy means guaranteed anarchy. Projects launched without visibility, duplicate purchases, critical security breaches, and silent waste under the guise of “local agility.”
The key, she now knows, isn’t to control everything. It’s to create a clear, shared, and understood framework.
She calls it her “constitution.”
A sober, readable document, halfway between a code of conduct and a trust pact.
Officially: the Rules of Engagement.
This document sets out the rules of the game :
- What budget should a project be submitted to the group before approval?
- What are the minimum requirements to meet before issuing a call for tenders?
- What are the mandatory safety standards, regardless of region or sector?
Not to police. To empower. So that everyone knows where their freedom begins… and where collective responsibility begins.
But Sophie knows that the text isn’t enough. We need appropriate governance.
Not uniform governance. Multi-layered governance, like a well-thought-out mille-feuille :
- Global, for structuring issues: infrastructure, digital workplace, ERP.
- Regional, for support, local services, and operational management.
- Lastly, local, for purely application-related issues or business innovation projects.
We don’t impose the same thing on a country hosting a data center as we do on a local development team wanting to test a low-code tool.
And above all, we must establish solid standards on sovereign issues.
There can be no management without a common foundation.
Sophie therefore launched a project to standardize three pillars :
- Demand management : How projects emerge, are prioritized, and arbitrated.
- The service catalog : What the IT department officially offers worldwide.
- Incident management : Same approach, same tool, same requirements, regardless of the region.
His dream? That an IT employee moving from Atlanta to Paris, then to Singapore, doesn’t feel like they’re moving to a new company every time.
3) Political courage
In her office, Sophie scribbled a sentence in capital letters on a post-it stuck to the screen :
“Choose your battles.”
She often repeats this to herself. Because as a Group CIO, wanting to change everything, right away, everywhere, is a surefire way to hit a wall.
She’s learned to make smart deals. She can ease up on a local application if it helps secure the adoption of a security standard. She can turn a blind eye to a Swedish-specific HR tool, as long as the ERP core model is respected. And above all: never lose sight of what’s important.
The important thing is that the IT department shouldn’t be a support service for the support team. It must be involved in decision-making. And that starts with having a say in the career paths of IT talent, even when they don’t report to her.
Sophie doesn’t want to simply impose rules. She wants to build a culture. And that starts with people. With connections. With recognition.
So she launched a somewhat atypical project :
- Make the relationship with the Group a performance indicator for regional IT departments.
- Get involved in their careers, and communicate regularly with HR to recognize those who actively collaborate.
- To play a mentoring role, even informally, for those who want to progress. To be a sparring partner, not a controller.
And beyond processes, KPIs, and architectures, she wants to rekindle the flame.
She dreams of bringing together regional IT departments once a year in Bordeaux, at the headquarters, in this beautiful industrial company that will soon celebrate its 60th anniversary. Not for yet another PowerPoint presentation. To experience a powerful, inspiring, and human experience.
To remind them why they do this job.
To give them an overview, bring them together, and create connections.
And make them feel that they are not isolated IT departments in their own corner of the world… but key leaders of a shared project.
Why she fights
Sophie isn’t doing this for her ego. Nor to assert an authority whose limits she knows only too well. She’s doing it because she’s convinced. Convinced that it’s the only way to achieve the goal that ultimately justifies all her efforts: the group’s performance.
In an ultra-competitive industrial world, where every month of delay, every duplicated cost, every flaw in execution can jeopardize a contract or weaken a factory, the quest for productivity is not a luxury. It’s a vital necessity.
And those 15%, those 10%, those 5% additional performance gains… they’re no longer found in major revolutions. They’re found in consistency, in operational excellence, in the ability to pool resources, to capitalize, to speak a common language.
Sophie is convinced: we can’t continue to play it alone in a world that demands teamwork. Without harmonization, without pooling, without governance, the group fragments, slows down, weakens.
And that is the true value of a Group CIO: Sometimes criticized, often misunderstood, but absolutely essential when it comes to ensuring the strength, cohesion, and competitiveness of a global organization.
Conclusion
That morning, at 8:14 a.m. in Bordeaux, Sophie wasn’t dreaming of a revolution. She simply dreamed of a company that was more aligned, more efficient, and prouder of itself.
She knew it wouldn’t be quick or easy. But she also knew she wasn’t alone. And that in the shadow of KPIs, roadmaps, and steering committees, every decision made, every discussion initiated, every connection forged contributed to something bigger than herself: the lasting success of a French industrial group, firmly anchored in the world.
Sophie also knows she won’t be able to escape certain imperatives:
(Re)defining clear Rules of Engagement,
Enforcing standards through her CIO Office,
Picking her battles wisely,
Organizing a high-impact IT Day to showcase her teams, foster connection… and above all, retain talent.
And fortunately, she knows she can count on a demanding yet supportive sparring partner to help lead these many efforts:
Hubadviser! (shameless plug 😉)
About the author
Ismail has 15 years of experience in IT and digital consulting. He spent nearly 7 years at Gartner. He has supported innovative startups in their growth strategy and worked with CIOs of large groups on their digital transformation. In 2021, Ismail founded Hubadviser to help CIOs challenge their vision with top-level experts.