Board members don't want to hear about technology. You need to tell them how you're helping the company make money. I never want to look like the IT guy who talks just about technology. So when I presented to the MDS board of directors at its last meeting (as I do twice a year), I spoke about some of the commercially oriented initiatives IT has been driving or enabling. These include our system for managing customers’ clinical trial data, which is helping us generate new sales.More on CIO.com How to Build a Commerically-Focused Team Wow Your Board of Directors When it comes to working with the board, I do almost everything in partnership with a business peer. So I’ll have the business unit president in the room with me, and we’ll support each other. It’s important to show that IT is a business-focused and business-enabling function. A lot of what I talk about is how we ensure that our projects meet business needs, how IT provides better capabilities to the end customer and how our technology is perceived in the marketplace. For example, we have customer comments and studies that show the deals we’ve been winning because of the clinical trials management system. I also focus on world-class benchmarks, comparing ourselves to what the best companies are doing with IT, the actions we’re taking to get to their level. I’m fortunate in that we have a board member who was a senior executive at a leading technology provider and outsourcer. But board members want to understand business impact of IT. Avoid the technology talk and explain how you are enabling the organization or creating business opportunities. Tom Gernon is CIO of MDS and is a member of the CIO Executive Council. He was COO of D2Hawkeye Inc., a healthcare software company, and has held CIO positions at both PerkinElmer Inc. and J.P. Morgan Invest. Related content case study Toyota transforms IT service desk with gen AI To help promote insourcing and quality control, Toyota Motor North America is leveraging generative AI for HR and IT service desk requests. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 08, 2023 7 mins Employee Experience Employee Experience Employee Experience feature CSM certification: Costs, requirements, and all you need to know The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification sets the standard for establishing Scrum theory, developing practical applications and rules, and leading teams and stakeholders through the development process. By Moira Alexander Dec 08, 2023 8 mins Certifications IT Skills Project Management brandpost Sponsored by SAP When natural disasters strike Japan, Ōita University’s EDiSON is ready to act With the technology and assistance of SAP and Zynas Corporation, Ōita University built an emergency-response collaboration tool named EDiSON that helps the Japanese island of Kyushu detect and mitigate natural disasters. By Michael Kure, SAP Contributor Dec 07, 2023 5 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by BMC BMC on BMC: How the company enables IT observability with BMC Helix and AIOps The goals: transform an ocean of data and ultimately provide a stellar user experience and maximum value. By Jeff Miller Dec 07, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership 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