CIOs face a tough new year

Booz & Co., a leading management consulting company, is predicting that CIOs will be less powerful as the economic climate gets tougher for their companies. In order to retain their leadership positions, Booz & Co. recommends that CIOs find ways to cut costs and continue providing a strategic boost to business during the recession.

"The relative authority of a CIO on the leadership team is probably once again going down," says Barry Jaruzelski, a partner in Booz & Co.'s high-tech practice. "It's a bit of a shift of the pendulum to IT being a necessary evil...The CFO and the controller are kings."
 
Jaruzelski said there will be "more pressure'' on CIOs to get work done faster and at a lower cost. He also predicted that IT infrastructure will not be cut back as much as classic capital equipment, such as factory machinery.

Here are a few of his suggestions to deal with today's harsh reality:

• Skip incremental improvements that aren't that impressive.
• Spend frugally and stick to your budget.
• Upgrades should be tied not just to IT savings, but to savings across business operations.

The bad news is that Booz & Co. is predicting a very difficult budgetary year. The good news is that it won't be as bad as it was in 2001, the company says.

For more on adjusting to the economic conditions:
- Check out this NetworkWorld article

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