Does The Federal CIO Shop Need Bold Vision Or Implementation?

It’s an old trope in government that too much change all at once can start to yield diminishing returns. That’s why government executives who make major changes are often succeeded by managers who, either by temperament or necessity, focus on implementing their predecessor’s big initiatives, making sure all the new processes are running smoothly and the troops are on board, says Alan Balutis, a former chief information officer at the Commerce Department and now a director at Cisco's Internet Business Solutions Group.

That’s the sort of transition that seemed to be taking place when Vivek Kundra, the nation’s first chief information officer, was succeeded by Steven VanRoekel, it’s second, Balutis said during a Nextgov interview last week. VanRoekel’s first year in office has told a different story, though, with a pace of new initiatives that matches or exceeds his predecessor’s. With that much transformation in such a short period, Balutis worries, many of the changes implemented in the past four years won’t have time to work their way into the fabric of federal operations, especially if Republican nominee Mitt Romney wins the presidency in November and appoints a third federal CIO.