In corporate IT, success is often measured in quarterly earnings, efficiency gains, or competitive advantage. For municipal CIOs, however, the stakes are very different. Their “customers” are residents whose lives are shaped every day by the reliability of, and access to, city services like broadband access and waste collection. When projects succeed, the applause is well earned, but when they fail, the backlash is immediate and highly charged.
Technology leaders from Santa Monica, California; Sydney, Australia; Sandy Springs, Georgia; and Stavanger, Norway, reveal how municipal CIOs balance innovation with accountability, and why their roles diverge sharply from that of their corporate peers. Their stories also serve as valuable lessons for private-sector IT leaders.
Visibility and accountability
For Feroz Merchhiya, CIO of Santa Monica, the distinction between corporate and municipal technology leadership is stark. “Solving a technology problem for city government is like performing on a stage,” he says. “If you deliver something that doesn’t sit right with citizens, you hear it right then and there.”
