Potts's hero, 44-year-old Ian Taylor, has a CEO who thinks his IT strategy is incomprehensible techno-speak. She challenges him to replace it with a single page describing how the company will use IT to achieve its business goals—or look for work elsewhere. It's not easy: Ian's IT portfolio doesn't account for investments that others in the company must make to get the full value from new systems; nor has he mapped IT projects to high-level business objectives.

Sound familiar? Few CIOs today are wholly business strategists, but the role is changing. Potts's narrative spells out how you might change with the times.

-Elana Varon

The Future of the Internet
And How to Stop It
By Jonathan Zittrain
Yale University Press, 2008, $30

Will cloud computing kill the Internet? That depends, says Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School and Oxford University. Zittrain observes that we're ceding control of our devices (think iPhone) and software (anything Web 2.0) to vendors. The impulse to do so stems from the headaches consumers encounter with technology.But locking down devices and software inhibits innovative tinkering. Vendors can control, for example, whether you may modify their code or use someone else's—and change their minds anytime. Plus, they know everything you do and can pass that information to law enforcement on demand.

Zittrain (a moderator at CIO events), says solutions include ensuring data portability, privacy protections and new legal frameworks to protect third-party developers. But will we insist on them? That's an open question.

-E.V.

Lead By Example
50 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Results
By John Baldoni
Amacom, 2008, $21.95

Whether great leaders are born or made, author and leadership consultant John Baldoni, (a frequent CIO contributor) outlines how they can inspire results. Packaged as quick management lessons, this is less a textbook on leadership skills than a source of inspiration that could offer you a tip about relating to staff or suggest ways you might drive innovation.

At its core, the book focuses on the importance of building up individuals, improving communication skills, standing up to adversity and putting others before yourself. It suggests that the better you become at "acting the part," the more it becomes part of you.

-Christine Celli