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Become a Strategic CIO

Create a personal development plan to take your career to the next level.

  • As a CIO, you are currently operating in a stable and trusted IT environment, but you would like to advance your role to strategic business partner.
  • CIOs are often overlooked as a strategic partner by their peers, and therefore face the challenge of proving they deserve a seat at the table.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • To become a strategic business partner, you must think and act as a business person that works in IT, rather than an IT person that works for the business.
  • Career advancement is not a solo effort. Building relationships with your executive business stakeholders will be critical to becoming a respected business partner.

Impact and Result

  • Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy to accelerate your career and become a strategic business partner. For a CIO to be considered a strategic business partner, he or she must be able to:
    • Act as a business person that works in IT, rather than an IT person that works for the business. This involves meeting executive stakeholder expectations, facilitating innovation, and managing stakeholder relationships.
    • Align IT with the customer. This involves providing business stakeholders with information to support stronger decision making, keeping up with disruptive technologies, and constantly adapting to the ever-changing end-customer needs.
    • Manage talent and change. This involves performing strategic workforce planning, and being actively engaged in identifying opportunities to introduce change in your organization, suggesting ways to improve, and then acting on them.

Become a Strategic CIO Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should become a strategic CIO, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

1. Launch

Analyze strategic CIO competencies and assess business stakeholder satisfaction with IT using Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision Diagnostic and CXO-CIO Alignment Program.

2. Assess

Evaluate strategic CIO competencies and business stakeholder relationships.

3. Plan

Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.

4. Execute

Develop a scorecard to track personal development initiatives.


Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.8/10


Overall Impact

$8,899


Average $ Saved

11


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Bob Barker Company, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,999

10

Brian did an excellent job of outlining the materials and activities that I need to consider completing on my path to being a Strategic CIO.

Pegasus Logistics Group, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,599

5

Best: Clear concise feedback with guidance and suggestions on next steps and pitfalls. Brian was able to articulate potential blind spots/action... Read More

Ground Transportation Systems Canada Inc

Guided Implementation

9/10

$10,000

20

analysis of areas of improvement and then having a tailored planned created to address them.

Nieuport Aviation

Guided Implementation

10/10

$10,000

10

Yolo County

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

20

Great conversation and insight. Many good ideas and guidance provided. I only wish I would have the conversation earlier!

Central University of Technology

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,292

110

the best is the advise and guidance offered by the consultant. following their advise always yielded positive results. sometimes, I traggled wit... Read More

AgeCare

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

N/A

Regional Transportation District

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A


Workshop: Become a Strategic CIO

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Assess Competencies & Stakeholder Relationships

The Purpose

  • Gather and review information from business stakeholders.
  • Assess strategic CIO competencies and business stakeholder relationships.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Gathered information to create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.
  • Analyzed the information from diagnostics and determined the appropriate next steps.
  • Identified and prioritized strategic CIO competency gaps.
  • Evaluated the power, impact, and support of key business stakeholders.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Conduct CIO Business Vision diagnostic

  • CIO Business Vision results
1.2

Conduct CXO-CIO Alignment program

  • CXO-CIO Alignment Program results
1.3

Assess CIO competencies

  • CIO competency gaps
1.4

Assess business stakeholder relationships

  • Executive Stakeholder Power Map

Module 2: Take Control of Your Personal Development

The Purpose

  • Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.
  • Track your personal development and establish checkpoints to revise initiatives.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Identified personal development and stakeholder engagement initiatives to bridge high priority competency gaps.
  • Identified key performance indicators and benchmarks/targets to track competency development.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Create a personal development plan

  • Personal Development Plan
2.2

Create a stakeholder management strategy

  • Stakeholder Management Strategy
2.3

Establish key performance indicators and benchmarks/targets

  • Strategic CIO Competency Scorecard
Become a Strategic CIO preview picture

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

9.8/10
Overall Impact

$8,899
Average $ Saved

11
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 9 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Launch
  • Call 1: Analyze competencies
  • Call 2: Assess business stakeholder satisfaction
  • Call 3: Gather information

Guided Implementation 2: Assess
  • Call 1: Evaluate strategic CIO competencies
  • Call 2: Evaluate business stakeholder relationships

Guided Implementation 3: Plan
  • Call 1: Take control of your development
  • Call 2: Manage your stakeholders

Guided Implementation 4: Execute
  • Call 1: Track your development
  • Call 2: Revise & re-evaluate your personal development plan

Author

Jason Petrovic

Contributors

  • Ken Piddington, Chief Information Officer and Executive Advisor, MRE Consulting
  • Kin Lee-Yow, VP IT, CAA South Central Ontario
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