IT leaders can have a hard time developing relationships with their CEOs, in part because the latter are often too busy to chat, and in part because they don't always care a whole lot about technology. While conventional wisdom might suggest that teeing up IT issues in business terms will capture the chief executive's attention, it doesn't always work that way, writes Toni Bowers in a post at TechRepublic. Touting the proven benefits of what's "fashionable" may be the quickest way to get the CEO's attention.

As it turns out, researchers have found a strong correlation between "hip" technology adoption and business benefits, writes Bowers. Prof. Ping Wang at the University of Maryland recently issued a study called "The surprising Impact of Fashions in Information Technology," which spells out the impact of different types of technology deployments.

The study found that companies associated with fashionable IT tend to enjoy an increase in reputation, even if the IT isn't actually deployed. If a fashionable technology is deployed, reputation improves further, as does the impact to the bottom line.

Of most interest to CEOs, perhaps, chief executive pay increases in proportion to the amount of hype from IT investments. "For every $1 million a company invested in fashionable tech, the CEO received a $45,000 bump in compensation, on average, the following year--REGARDLESS of how the company actually performed," Bowers writes.

If that doesn't get your CEO's ear, it's hard to know what will.

For more:
- see Tony Bowers' post at TechRepublic

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