CIOs may claim they talk the value of IT talk, but they’re certainly not walking the walk. In fact, most CIOs seem to be failing badly at convincing top management that IT can truly transform a business.Right now, the U.S. Department of Commerce reports that corporate profits grew at double-digit rates for the 16th consecutive quarter. You have to go back half a century to find that many consecutive double-digit profit growth quarters.Three-plus years of strong profit growth should be good news for CIOs and their budgets. But it hasn’t been. Gartner recently issued an ominous report forecasting that technology investments will lag behind top-line growth for the next five years.So why is tech investment limping along at rates that are half of profit growth? I put the blame squarely on the CIO.For three years, CIOs have reported in our “State of the CIO” surveys (for all the data, go to www.cio.com/state) that the focus of their IT investment strategy is to enable business growth and innovation. They claim that their top management priority is the alignment of business and technology strategies. Moreover, topping their list of their most important professional skills—the key to their success—is the ability to communicate with CEOs and line-of-business executives. So why isn’t the rate of investment in IT paralleling the rate of profit growth?It seems apparent that while CIOs may be communicating with their business colleagues, they aren’t convincing them of the value of investing in IT.So, what can they do?One modest suggestion: Send me an e-mail and I will send you (from the CIO Executive Council) the definitive work on what constitutes value in IT. The 449 worldwide members of the Council, all CIOs, have built what they call the IT Value Matrix, which is a road map to defining IT value.This road map will help you walk the communication walk. Related content feature Key IT initiatives reshape the CIO agenda While cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics remain top of mind for IT leaders, a shift toward delivering business value is altering how CIOs approach key priorities, pushing transformative projects to the next phase. By Mary Pratt May 30, 2023 10 mins IT Strategy IT Leadership opinion Managing IT right starts with rightsizing IT for value While there are few universals when it comes to saying unambiguously what ‘managing IT right’ looks like, knowing how to navigate the limitless possibilities of IT is surely one. By Thornton May May 30, 2023 6 mins Digital Transformation IT Strategy IT Leadership brandpost Designing the campus of the future starts with high-quality 10Gbps connectivity By Huawei May 30, 2023 4 mins Network Architect Networking Devices Networking feature Red Hat embraces hybrid cloud for internal IT The maker of OpenShift has leveraged its own open container offering to migrate business-critical apps to AWS as part of a strategy to move beyond facilitating hybrid cloud for others and capitalize on the model for itself. By Paula Rooney May 29, 2023 5 mins CIO 100 Technology Industry Hybrid Cloud 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