A day in the life of a strategy-driven CIO

Some CIOs run only technology operations, but not Stephen Franchetti. He embraces a strategic business role alongside the operational demands of managing IT at his company.

Franchetti, CIO at the IoT software company Samsara, begins his workday around 7 a.m. and typically ends between 6:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. -- depending on the day's needs. He starts most days by reviewing critical IT operations, including escalations and system issues. Yet, he always sets aside time to reflect on how his department aligns strategically with the organization's broader business goals. CIOs who don't build in time for strategic thought often become too reactive, Franchetti said.

In the following interview, Franchetti illustrates a day in his life as CIO of a large software company. He discusses key challenges, responsibilities and habits associated with his role.

Editor's note: The following transcript was edited for length and clarity.

Can you walk me through a typical morning in your shoes?

Stephen Franchetti: Most days start with scanning the field and setting intent. In the early morning, I do a scan of overnight signals. I look for customer escalations and issues with our core systems or data pipeline. Part of that involves reviewing emails and escalation messages, as well as checking in with key leadership team members.

As part of the intention-setting piece, I set goals for the week at the beginning of each week. Then, at the start of each day, I track my progress against those goals. I consider what needs my judgment versus what I can delegate.

Most CIOs spend too much time in meetings and not enough time thinking. If you can't carve out time for intention-setting, you become reactive. It's very important to do that kind of intention setting, especially in the morning.

There's a conception that CIOs and other C-level executives are always working. What time does your workday usually start and end?

Franchetti: I normally start between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. It's interesting to think about the start and end, because everything blurs together nowadays in this connected world. I'm constantly checking in with the devices and notifications that we have going on. My day typically ends between 6:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. I'm the executive sponsor for our India site, and if there are discussions or leadership meetings scheduled for the India site, they typically take place in the evening.

Most CIOs spend too much time in meetings and not enough time thinking.

In response to the conception that CIOs are always working, it's a question of balance. I love that there's flexibility, allowing me to step out and go for a walk in the middle of the day to blow off some steam -- perhaps during the lunch hour -- while still having the ability to check in or take a call.

How do you handle stress or stay focused when you're in a high-pressure situation?

Franchetti: The CIO role is a marathon, not a sprint. Therefore, you must adopt the mindset that stressful situations are just part of the journey. While we do work in quick sprints from a technical standpoint, implementing new systems and building new architectures are multi-month, multi-quarter -- sometimes multi-year -- projects. The key is to realize it's just a step in the process.

Typically, stressful situations come in the form of escalations. By the time something gets to me, it's usually a dumpster fire. At that point, it's gone through various levels of the organization, and people are losing their minds. It's about realizing that a significant portion of the CIO role involves driving alignment. It's about aligning other executives to ensure that we can lock in and accomplish tough tasks.

What role does collaboration with other executives play in your daily work?

Franchetti: I have biweekly and monthly check-ins with other key execs, including our CFO, head of supply chain and head of customer support. My teams obviously work closely with their teams as well, but these check-ins ensure that we're locked in and working on the right strategic items. I try to have lunch with them monthly -- it's amazing what you learn about what's really going on when you get together in person in a more informal setting.

We often chat about whether the work we're doing from an IT perspective is actually enabling the business, and that's important to me. We will only take on work that is directly related to a key business metric.

How do you manage your time?

Franchetti: I have a great executive assistant who helps with this. He is incredible, and he does a great job of just being the front-line protector of my time. He schedules my calendar, and I just take his lead. We check in with each other a couple of times a week, and we're always on Slack -- so he's very familiar with what is a priority for me.

My priorities include customer-related and executive-related items, followed by a list that narrows down to major company priorities and operational excellence items, such as escalations.

What kinds of tasks do you find yourself spending the most time on?

Franchetti: Putting out unexpected fires can take up a lot of time, but the other thing is making sure that everyone is marching toward the end goal. I try to spend time every day thinking about our strategy from an IT perspective. Our strategy is to equip our business with an architecture that enables the company to scale and keep pace with the rapid rate of change occurring in the business. 

We're building that architecture, and it's a long-term deal that we'll make progress on over time. So, I'm constantly asking, 'How are we doing against that? What more can we be doing? And do we have people focused on that?'

I hate to use military analogies, but it's almost like playing the general role, where you're looking at the troops out in the field and saying, 'Okay, there's a lot of people working on a lot of things. Are they moving in the same direction?' Part of that involves checking in with my leadership team, as I have leaders responsible for each of the functions to ensure they are aligned.

People think CIOs run technology -- which is true -- but we also run alignment. Technology is the easy part. Cross-functional alignment is hard and doesn't necessarily come naturally. It develops over time as you build relationships, understand how teams operate and learn what's important to them.

What is one habit or routine that you credit for your effectiveness as a CIO?

Franchetti: You must be really determined in the CIO role, because it's tough. People view it differently in different organizations. For example, it can be viewed as the plumber who plugs in the wires and implements ERP and back-office systems. However, I view the role as a strategic enabler of the business, and that's where most CIOs want to play. Very few do play in that realm, though.

A CIO who is a business enabler asks 'What are the strategic initiatives of the company? What are the metrics associated with that? How are we moving the needle, and how can we demonstrate how we're doing that?'

Aligning with other members of the C-suite also requires determination. It requires communicating a strong strategy and making sure that people understand its importance -- getting in front of people and really pushing it because no one else will. Otherwise, IT often falls into an order-taker mentality.

What decisions can you -- and only you -- make within the organization?

Franchetti: Anything related to our architecture and company security. Security and the chief information security officer roll into my organization. Therefore, anything that puts the company at risk is ultimately my responsibility. It's almost like a federal and state scenario when it comes to protecting the data of the company, building our overall data strategy, security and governance, and protecting private information. We have the ultimate veto power over what's going to happen there, and those are the decisions that really fall into my full responsibility.

The other areas we've discussed -- such as how we build systems to enable the business -- are very much partnerships. My team has ultimate say, I suppose, because it rolls into my decision-making power regarding which technologies we use. However, the way we choose to apply those technologies is a partnership.

How involved are you in shaping company culture and employee engagement within IT?

Franchetti: I'm very involved. Ultimately, it's my responsibility, and I work closely with my leadership team in this regard. We've spent some time codifying what we expect of our IT team members based on our company's beliefs and behaviors. It's like our operating handbook -- and it's only a one-pager, not a lengthy document. It highlights how we hire, how we manage performance and how we reward our employees within the context of those behaviors.

It's very intentional, and we explain it to people in the interview process and as we move along our journey as well.

Is there a conventional versus unconventional path to becoming a CIO?

Franchetti: There's a mixed bag of potential paths. My path to CIO was more conventional. I studied computer science and became a software engineer originally. When I moved to the U.S. 25 years ago, I moved into the IT realm for more of a software development area. I then grew within the IT realm, moved into project management and climbed from there.

However, there are other more unconventional approaches that I've seen -- and they're not uncommon. For example, a leader who's grown up within an operational environment -- perhaps they've been running sales operations or supply chain analytics -- might have a lot of rich business experience within a function or a group of functions.

Then suddenly, they find that there's a vacant CIO position, and they are moved into the CIO role. They might cover things more with an operational angle and less of a technical lens. They might rely on individuals within their organizations to fulfill that technical lens.

Both paths are relatively common. When I think about the CIO networks that I sit on, it's really a mixed bag. Probably half have come through a conventional trajectory like mine, and the others have come in from the business side with a more operational background.

Tim Murphy is a site editor for Informa TechTarget's IT strategy group.