Keeping your finger on the pulse

A successful CIO should know as much as possible about the market in which the company operates. That means knowing who your customers are by company, division and line of business, and how your customers are segmented within each division. You should know what touchpoints you have with your prospective, current and past customers; what your customers value about your products, services and interactions compared with your competitors, and what choices besides your offerings your customers have. You should know your key performance indicators (KPIs) and how they match with your customers' KPIs; how globalization and increased regulation will affect your markets and your market strategy, and what your potential disruptive market forces are and how quickly you can respond. You should know how the customer profile and business profile are expected to evolve over the next decade. And most importantly, you should know how your competitive landscape is expected to evolve and how you would deal with irrational competitive behavior.

Read more about knowing your market:
- read the blog at CIO