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Saturday | 22 November, 2008
CIO
Are You Misusing the CIO Title?
A message to the CIO community from the CIO Executive Council
Rick Pastore 03 December, 2007 13:25:24

A Visual Model

Both the EQ and the Business Readiness scores are plotted on the Future-State CIO Model, which depicts the CIO's allocation of time (or focus) across the three fundamental aspects of the role: function head, transformational leader and business strategist. The higher the CIO's EQ, the more well-equipped he/she is to spend the majority of his/her time as a business strategist (the future-state red zone).

The difference between the CIO's EQ and the business's readiness score indicates the "Expectation/Capability Gap". Many CIO Executive Council members refer to this gap as the "the extreme frustration zone". However, these same members are also quick to note that visual images of the "expectation gap" or "frustration zone" are intended to fuel CIOs into action, not excuses. Indeed, the goal of the Future-State CIO program is to close the expectation/credibility gap while shifting both the CIO's capabilities and the business's expectations to the right and making way for the CIO to devote the lion's share of his/her time to business strategy. CIOs ready to take this step need to regard the Future-State CIO program as an obligation vs an option.

"CIOs have long been too focused on budget and operations as the measures of their value," West says. "With technology becoming a more significant source of competitive advantage for our business, CIOs need to shift their focus from the costs of technology to the revenue potential of technology."

As Ehrlich told Wall Street Journal reporter Pui-Wing Tam ("CIO Jobs Morph From Tech Support Into Strategy," in February 20, 2007), "The CIO title is misused frankly."

Are YOU misusing your CIO title? And if yes, what are you going to do to change that?

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