CIOs should understand that their job is to provide the integration and the data to back up the models of execution being developed by senior managers. Many models of execution demand changes in the corporate structure. For instance, devise a new strategy that requires goods or knowledge to move around the world and from unit to unit and you have created a major IT issue. The CIO - who ought to be an expert in information transfer - immediately needs to get involved, since information sharing is now a critical component of the plan for executing the strategy. Devise a strategy for growth and you are creating extra tasks and different responsibilities, not to mention entering new markets and developing new products. Successful execution requires ensuring the strategy is backed by capabilities, including skills, information and people. Naturally, CIOs are vital to strategy execution.

One who understands this is Department of Veterans' Affairs CIO Bob Hay.

"IT is clearly a key enabler of delivering services in Veterans' Affairs so it's important that we understand the business needs, it's important that we get involved in determining solutions to deliver on those needs," Hay says. "And it's important that we bear in mind that the client groups that we serve need to have the appropriate services, and deliver those services with appropriate tools."

Hay says within his department there are two aspects to IT's involvement in strategy execution. First, there are ongoing operations, with IT striving to ensure the systems and processes the business needs are in place and to be comfortable that they are operating reliably and responsively - that is the normal IT business as usual. Then there is the tactical side of IT operation. "That is, what's happening in the environment that we need to be aware of that may be emerging issues or areas that we need to pay attention to so that we can be proactive in both, either anticipating issues that we need to address or understanding where the business is coming from, so that we are able to react to those demands when they arise.

"So it's being both tactical and operational, and it's being strategic and understanding the issues and direction where changes might emerge," Hay says.

At CSC Australia, CIO Emily Richmond-Jones has a slightly different approach.

"Generally speaking, my role is primarily in ensuring that the business groups can have a technology that facilitates their strategic plans," Richmond-Jones says. "I don't really get involved in how the two delivery units deliver service to our customers - that's actually somebody else's job."

The task of determining business groups' needs is made easier by Richmond-Jones's membership of the group tasked with implementing the strategic initiatives devised by the executive group. Each business unit also has its own business unit strategic plan supporting that group strategic plan. Richmond-Jones is privy to all of those plans and also has a strategy plan of her own that "marries" into those.

"For instance, if there is an initiative around having a winning sales force and they have no integrated customer relationship management system, then a key part of my strategy would be to implement the CRM in support of their initiative to have a winning sales force," she says. "So I guess a lot of it is around being part of that planning, and being in the communication loop so that I am aware of the business units' strategic plans and how IT can support their plans."

Lazy Assumptions

All levels of management have ownership of execution, and those from the C-suite down must commit to and own the processes and actions central to effective execution. Some people see two processes at work. One is the conceptual process: the brilliant people look at things like industry forces and competitive forces, and come up with new strategies, new ideas and new products. That done, they turn to their subordinates and say: "Here, execute this."

Hrebiniak rejects that distinction between planning and doing. All managers must have a hand in execution, he says, including the CEO. In fact strategic success demands a simultaneous view of planning and doing, with managers thinking about execution even as they are formulating plans. It is the CEO who should bring his top people, including the CIO, together as a team to plot or to talk about the execution plan.

"Part of the problem has been that when it comes to execution you have CIOs and top managers who would spend all of their time on strategic planning and then assume a number of things. One is that everyone else would see the logic of the plan, and fall in line automatically and then do the right things," Hrebiniak says. "Or they would take the attitude of the person at General Motors who once said: 'But the grunts handle the execution of the plan; we turn our plan over to the lower level people and let them run with the ball'. That's no good either because there is a separation between planning and doing. Those models don't work."