Learn how to turn your IT consumers into IT investors Welcome back to “CIO Career Coach,” a video series I created with CIO.com and IDG.tv. This season, we’re discussing the skills that top CIOs are developing to be successful in the new era of IT. Today’s topic is Creating an IT Investment Culture at your organization, or how to turn your business partners from naïve and begrudging consumers of IT into engaged, enthusiastic IT co-investors. For the longest time, I would talk to CIOs who complained that their business partners thought that IT was free. The business would have a need, tell IT all about it and then be relatively oblivious about the true costs of the technology solutions IT provided. What’s more, after the implementation, the business partner who requested the solution would fail to look back to determine if the business bang was worth the investment buck. The business’s general lack of understanding of the true costs (and results) of IT, these CIOs found, created major problems in performance, business impact and IT credibility. But at the same time, when these same business partners receive a monthly charge-back from the IT organization, they complain that IT costs too much. Because they do not really understand the costs of IT and they are not empowered to direct IT spending, they assume they can get better service from outside vendors—they devalue their own IT organization. When it comes to creating an investment management mindset around the IT budget, CIOs agree in theory but get hot and bothered when it comes to applying the theory. They say things like, “When you hand IT investments to P&L leaders, you lose control, and shadow IT gets worse!” or “Run-the-business investments are my responsibility! Why would I involve my business leaders?!” Watch this video to see how the foremost CIOs are meeting this formidable leadership challenge. Related content feature We’re all becoming software CIOs — a role Red Hat CIO Jim Palermo knows well As products become more based in software, CIO roles will increasingly align with CIOs who’ve been selling software for decades, like Jim Palermo, CIO of open source solution provider Red Hat. By Martha Heller Nov 15, 2023 7 mins CIO Software Deployment Marketing feature New US CIO appointments, November 2023 Congratulations to these 'movers and shakers' recently hired or promoted into a new chief information officer role. By Martha Heller Nov 08, 2023 9 mins CIO Careers IT Leadership interview How Huber spurs innovation in a historically decentralized business With IT/OT convergence, digital technologies, and the growing importance of data, Huber CIO Dwain Wilcox leads the creation of a cross-functional, cross-business innovation engine. By Martha Heller Aug 23, 2023 6 mins CIO Enterprise Cloud Management interview CIO Ryan Snyder on the benefits of interpreting data as a layer cake Thermo Fisher Scientific CIO Ryan Snyder discusses a tiered model used to turn data into value at the $40 billion laboratory equipment and instrument maker. By Martha Heller Aug 02, 2023 8 mins CIO Data Architecture Data Governance Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe