Fighting irrelevance and achieving your goals

These days, the average CIO is in a tight spot, thanks to cost-cutting and changes in corporate direction and perception. There is a giant divide between what CIOs aspire to accomplish and what they're actually achieving. An InformationWeek survey found that virtually all CIOs believe that their companies are somewhat or very effective at using technology for business innovation. At the same time, almost half said their companies are either becoming more conservative in how they invest in and deploy new technology or are not changing their IT investment strategies significantly. That's exactly the problem. Also, a disproportionate amount of IT dollars are going toward system maintenance, leaving precious little for technological innovation and new projects. To fight the tide, connect the tactical needs of the present with the strategic possibilities of the future. Also, streamline everything you do, offload the grunt work, reinvest freed-up resources back into new initiatives, and push for innovation whenever possible.

Learn more about staying relevant:
- read this article [1] at InformationWeek
- and this sidebar [2] at InformationWeek

ALSO:
- read this blog [3] for five reasons why CIOs should worry
- and this [4] about whether it's the end of the line for CIOs