Strategic IT: Best Practices for Managers and Executives

Preface

How This Book Is Structured

Four broad themes provide the structure for this book:

1. How is technology organizationally positioned as an effective strategic driver?

2. What challenges are posed by various ways of positioning technology, and what are the implications of how these challenges are resolved?

3. What strategies are used by effective chief information officers (CIOs) in addressing these challenges and strategically positioning technology?

4. How did these CIOs learn these strategies, and what are the implications for developing this capacity in high-potential technology managers?

This book grows out of the work we have done with the CIO Institute conducted at Columbia University and the Executive Master of Science in Technology Management program at Columbia University, along with several projects working with the technology management staff within corporations focusing on developing their staff to the strategic realities described earlier. Part of this work has experimented with educational and mentoring strategies with successful CIOs to foster strategic mindsets and the capability of meeting the challenges of navigating into senior executive roles.

Specifically, this book provides a comparative analysis of case studies of organizations with CIOs widely regarded as being at forefront of addressing the challenge of strategically positioning technology within the business models of their organizations. These CIOs are recognized as having successfully made the ...