You're already an IT strategist, but the CEO needs you to help guide the business to new heights (and avoid being on the wrong end of digital disruption). These advice columns will put you on the right path. Credit: Thinkstock You’re a CIO, so you’re already an IT strategist. You’ve got the email and the data center under control, you’ve wrestled with the ERP beast, and you’re trying to keep the hackers out. So why do you need to also be a business strategist? Isn’t that the CEO’s job? Click the link at the end of this article to download our ebook. Yes, but the CEO needs help. A PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of CEOs found that they view “technological advances” as the No. 1 trend transforming their business over the next five years. (Dirty little secret: The CEO and the board of directors are really, really afraid of being on the wrong end of digital disruption on their watch.) This is where you come in — consider yourself the CEO’s chief digital consultant, helping the CEO find a way to be a digital hero, a disrupter instead of a disruptee. Our colleagues at the CIO Executive Council call this C-suite role the “digital pathfinder.” But you’ll need more than tech savvy. You’ll need to thoroughly understand how your business makes money and monitor the broader trends in your industry (and society at large) so you can identify new business opportunities and risks. You’ll need political savvy, too. Not the bad kind that features sharp elbows and backstabbing. The good kind, where you work with C-suite colleagues to move the business forward, together. The digital pathfinder will either be you, as CIO, or the CMO (or perhaps both of you as a dynamic duo). Otherwise, the CEO will hire a hotshot chief digital officer to do the job and you’ll be left sweeping up the digital crumbs. So let’s get started. The expert advice in these pages, carefully selected from CIO magazine’s Business Strategist columns, will put you on the right path. download CIO’s Guide to Becoming a Business Strategist Related content BrandPost Retail innovation playbook: Fast, economical transformation on Microsoft Cloud For retailers, tight integration of data and systems is the antidote to a challenging economy. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 3 mins Retail Industry Digital Transformation BrandPost How retailers are empowering business transformation with TCS and Microsoft Cloud AI-powered omnichannel integration and a strong, secure digital core lets retailers innovate across four primary areas while staying compliant, maintaining security and preventing fraud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 4 mins Retail Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost How to Build ROI from Cloud Migration This whitepaper and webcast can help you calculate the ROI and create a business case for modernizing your legacy applications to the Microsoft Cloud. By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 1 min Retail Industry Cloud Computing BrandPost How to power a sustainable enterprise on Microsoft Cloud In this eBook, we’ll follow the journey of Amal Skye, a fictitious woman who is committed to living in a way that preserves the planet for the future —and how businesses like Tata Consultancy Services and Microsoft are making that possi By Tata Consultancy Services Mar 24, 2023 1 min Retail Industry Green IT 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