Career Talk JDR

CIO Perspective: Business Transformation, and the Role of Strategic CIO Leadership

Strategic CIO-Sponsored Investments Make Service Transformations Possible

Elevating the new CIO from what has typically been an IT operations management function into a business-enabling role can inspire the creative, collaborative cultures that make incredible service experiences happen. In today’s highly competitive business climate, where all business must compete skillfully for our customers’ attention and loyalty, it’s essential to invest “strategically” in technologies that make better service possible. The new strategic CIO’s unique insight into both business and technology allows, at an executive level, an improved perspective for choosing IT investments that yield the highest impact on achieving the goals of the business. However, in many companies today, the old cost-centered financial model has not yet evolved to fund the strategic IT investments that enable the type of cultural and service transformations needed to compete in this new business era. During budget season, there is usually competition for funds to support strategic growth initiatives. If the business-savvy, technology-aware CIO is not at the table, then timely opportunities for service, innovation, and productivity will be forfeited and the business culture cannot transform.

Part Five of this blog post to follow…

If you’d like to read the full article, you can also find it at

http://cioleadershipcenter.com/images/Alcatel-Lucent_CIO_Business-Transformation.pdf