The ability to think like a CEO, focusing on how a company engages with customers and its industry, makes for a better CIO-CEO partnership. CIOs who focus on business strategy are surprisingly similar to CEOs. Although most CIOs profess no interest in running a company, thinking more like the CEO can only strengthen the CEO-CIO partnership and sharpen the strategic impact of the role. “The difference between CEOs and CIOs is markets, products and sales channels,” concludes Michael Capellas, who recently became CEO of Acadia, a joint venture of Cisco and EMC to provide private cloud solutions. The CEO looks at those three areas from the customer’s perspective, focusing on sales. CIOs typically focus internally, on following a product through the supply chain and recording expenses. CIOs should develop more of an outside-in point of view, says Capellas, who in the late 1990s was promoted from CIO to CEO of Compaq. When you compare the performance of CIOs and CEOs as leaders, they’re remarkably close, says Chris Patrick, global CIO practice leader with executive recruiter Egon Zehnder International. Egon Zehnder has compared thousands of individual executive performance assessments. The only major gaps between CIO and CEO performance appear in externally-focused skills such as knowing a company’s market, understanding customers and identifying new revenue opportunities. Those gaps are significant, however, and it can be challenging for IT leaders to close them. “When you’re so busy in your everyday role, there’s little time to hone some of these skills or take on that knowledge” says Rodger Riney, founder and CEO of Scottrade. Yet IT leaders who excel at such outward-facing skills can even make the leap to CEO. “If CIOs have the desire and ambition to do it, and are given the luxury of time to broaden themselves, it’s just a very short step up, quite frankly,” adds Riney. CIOs with no ambition to be top dog would still do well to put themselves in a CEO state of mind, advises Capellas, “Learn your CEO’s agenda and make it your agenda. Wear it on your forehead, reference it in your discussions with staff.” When the CIO’s agenda is fully in synch with the CEO’s, the CIO becomes the true partner of the CEO in moving the business forward. 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