Strategic IT: Best Practices for Managers and Executives

Chapter 5

Patterns of a Strategically Effective CIO

This chapter provides evidence of why certain chief information officers (CIOs) have attained success as a strategic driver of their businesses. This evidence is presented from the case studies from Chapter 4 and integrates our findings based on our theories of why certain CIOs are more successful than others. As stated earlier, these results have led us to understand the patterns that suggest why certain CIOs obtain success in introducing IT strategy to their firms and how they build credibility among C-level peers in their organizations.

We concluded Chapter 4 with presenting 24 key attributes of successful CIOs. These skills were divided into two categories: (1) personal attributes and (2) organizational philosophy. We expand each of these attributes further here to include more theory and practical guidance.

Personal Attributes

We defined personal attributes in Chapter 4 as “individual traits that appear to be keys for IT leadership.” The following section provides an expanded description of these 11 attributes as they relate to the value it brings to the business.

1. Push Yourself Outside Your Professional Comfort Zone

Successful CIOs need to keep reinventing themselves and should strive for continual excellence at their jobs. Look for more responsibilities in different places outside the normal IT functions.

Much has been written about what makes certain individuals want to progress to higher stages of maturity. Kegan, in ...