Future of CIO Role: Drive the Business or Face Career Stall

IT leaders are at a crossroads. To thrive in today’s — and tomorrow’s — rapidly changing digital world, they must move beyond the elusive idea of business and IT alignment, where business leaders are in the driver seat and IT leaders play a supporting and lagging role. Rather than plodding along in alignment, it’s time to jump in the copilot seat. It’s time to lock arms with their business peers to better serve customers, bring new products to market, and ultimately grow the top line. Our charter for Forrester’s IT Forum 2011 is to help you do just that — build bridges to new business partners, scale innovative solutions, co-create business and technology strategy, and ultimately help your organization accelerate at the intersection of business and technology.

But let’s be honest. All this talk of linking arms and co-creation may sound good and may be the ticket to your organization’s success. But it’s hard. Who’s to say it will work? And by the way, what’s in it for you? That’s why Marc Cecere will dedicate IT Forum’s opening keynote to exploring future models for IT that will fundamentally change current roles in IT. These models will support greater end user involvement, a larger variety of external suppliers, and the need to break down internal organizational and system silos. He’ll also relate that back to what we’ve learned over the years about why certain IT roles — like architecture, planning, vendor management, PMO, and security — often fail (or at least struggle mightily) to arm you with clear steps that will help accelerate your personal career over the next decade.

Several other Forrester analysts will also be taking the keynote stage. Patrick Connaughton will introduce the concept of agile vendor orchestration that every IT manager should adopt to keep up with the dizzying pace of self-provisioning. And Jeffrey Hammond will facilitate a mobile panel discussion with analysts Ted Schadler, Ben Gray, and Julie Ask that digs into the tough questions to help you move forward in the midst of mobile uncertainty.

We’ll also hear from top CIOs and CTOs that are already accelerating at the intersection of business and technology. IT Forum in Las Vegas will include keynotes from Warren Ritchie of Volkswagen, Eric Gebhardt of GE Energy Services, David Reilly of Morgan Stanley, Linda Jojo of Energy Future Holdings, and Walter Oswald of Motorola Mobility. IT Forum EMEA in Barcelona will include keynotes from Kevin Summers of Whirlpool, Magne Frantsen of Statoil, and Giulio Mattietti from the Vatican Bank.

We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas and Barcelona!

by Sharyn Leaver