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CIO strategy: mystery, art or science?

Ten years ago, whenever I met a new IT Director/ CIO, I often broke the ice by asking them to describe their strategy. Almost always the reply I received was a simple statement of procurement policy, such as “Windows on the desktop, Unix in the datacentre.”

The replies became so stereotyped that I eventually stopped asking but times have changed so I’d really like to find out how far CIO strategy has moved on since 1999. Who’s up for sharing their approach?

I don’t expect anyone to set out the details of their strategy for all the world to see. But it would be interesting to understand how CIOs approach strategy, especially at this time of year when many are engaged in updating plans for the next couple of years – years which are likely to be quite extraordinary for many of us.

To many the CIO strategy process remains a mystery; is there an art to your CIO strategy, or is it more of a carefully devised science?

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  • Peter Parslow

    From the headline, I was hoping for some insight to the strategy being developed by the government’s CTO Council (for the CIO Council – perhaps it’s significant that they’ve asked the CTOs to do it?). http://www.cio.gov.uk/documents/cto/pdf/enterprise_architecture_uk.pdf gives a taste, suggesting they’re taking an Enterprise Architecture approach.

    I’m not a CIO. My last encounter with one (in a previous job), he seemed unhappy when my response (in a meeting) to “who should write the Information Management Strategy?” was that perhaps – as CIO – he should. He left the same day I did.

  • John Falsetti

    Mystery, Art or Science? I think all of the above. MYSTERY: Can management clearly define (And I mean Clearly define. Without a doubt in Black and White) what their strategic goals are and the business challenges there are to meet the goals. ART: Securing management support and resources to meet the challenges over the long hall. SCIENCE: To make sure you have the right talent in your shop to pull it off. This cycle never ends. However that is what makes it fun!!

  • http://theintelligentcrowd.com/kmblog/ Mark

    As far as I understand, the CIO’s job really is to ‘work him/herself out of a job’ so by rights, since 1999, the target should have changed.

    I think the next trend in this should be to focus on the users, focus on making the most out of people’s individual knowledge as well as supporting more collaboration. We should really be developing (or using open source) technology that can facilitate this.

    How about “develop our people” for the next strategy? Regardless of windows/unix/linux/mac because the technology is just a tool. The people are the company’s greatest information asset.

    Just a different perspective :)