Rise of the CIO

Rebecca Blalock is a go-to person at Southern Company. It’s true that she doesn’t run the show. But she is the electric company’s senior vice president and chief information officer (CIO) and has become the key knowledge source when it comes to future technologies.  It’s a position that is slowly but surely becoming more powerful in the overall business organization.

Blalock reports to Alan Martin, president of Southern Company Services, who reports directly to the company’s CEO. While she’s always reported to someone in this general position, lately her boss—and the entire corporate board—have ratcheted up their interest in information technology (IT).  Recently, particularly on the subjects of financial compliance, emerging technologies, and cyber security, Blalock has been asked to provide special reports and personal insights to the board. She also meets regularly with the company’s top executives to talk strategy and understand how technology can fit in.

“It helps to know that you are valued as an important part of the organization,” says Blalock. “People used to think of IT as nothing but a cost center, but today it’s clear that the executive team sees us as a productivity enhancer that will drive success for the company.”

Blalock isn’t the only CIO in the electric and gas industries to say that his or her role in the business is increasing in importance.  According to a recent Edison Electric Institute (EEI) survey of 25 energy industry technology executives, nearly all the respondents said that in the last few years their positions ad been elevated to report directly to top executives—CEO, chief financial or accounting officer, senior vice president, and so on. Twenty percent said they reported directly to their CEOs.

The survey results were somewhat surprising. Until very recently, respondents (members of EEI’s and the American Gas Association’s Technology Advisory Council—TAC—of which Blalock is the immediate past EEI chairperson) reported in informal polls that they saw their role in the overall-business diminishing. As recently as 2005, CIOs said the company considered the IT function as a cost center and was pushing it down into the organization.  Put simply, the picture was bleak.

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© 2008 Edison Electric Institute