Download Best Practices for Advancing the CIO Role

What: Results of a survey to identify goals, challenges and best practices for CIOs seeking to make theirs a viable C-level, strategic role

Why: Going forward, CIOs must not only be accountable for the success of the information ­technology function and for business-process transformation, but must also adopt a more external focus and ­concentrate the majority of their time on using information to drive ­innovation, fuel growth and create competitive advantage. To advance to this Future-State CIO ideal, today’s IT leaders must shift their primary focus from internal and functional to enterprise and transformational, and ultimately to external and strategic.

How: The survey of more than 200 heads of IT shows conclusively that most IT leaders (80 percent) want to advance their role to the future-state, business-strategist CIO position. They are not content to act as IT function heads with a primarily internal focus, or even as transformation leaders, who focus mainly on the enterprise and lead transformation of processes. The biggest reported hurdle by far is a lack of depth in leadership skills among the CIOs’ staff. Without this, CIOs will continually be undermined in their efforts to build a reputation for themselves and their organizations as credible business peers. The results also focus on the experiences and competencies CIOs have found useful and that they are cultivating to help them move forward. While CIOs are training their staff to function better in this new environment, much still needs to be done to make stakeholders more receptive to a CIO role that is business strategy-oriented, and to an IT organization that can act as a game changer.

To download the tool, go to council.cio.com/dl1010.

This story, "Download Best Practices for Advancing the CIO Role" was originally published by CIO Executive Council.