The Transformational CIO: Leadership and Innovation Strategies for IT Executives in a Rapidly Changing World

The Last Word

It's been fun researching and writing this book. It gave me a chance to spend quality time with many old friends, and afforded me opportunities to make new friends. I learned a lot, and now I can hardly wait to start the next book!

By fate or luck, Stuart McGuigan was the last person that we interviewed for this book. Stuart is the CIO of CVS Caremark, the largest pharmacy health care provider in the United States. Like Joe and Hank, he's been around for a while—and he knows the value of patience. Some trends are the heralds of lasting change, others are overshadowed by the “next big thing.” My own personal opinion is that the cloud represents a genuine evolutionary step in computing. What impact the cloud will have on business over the next five to ten years is more difficult to say.

When Stuart looks at the cloud, he analyzes it from the CIO's perspective. Here's what he says:

There are two groups of CIOs, and it depends on what kind of company you work for. If you are an internal-facing CIO and your job is providing better, faster, cheaper business processes for your company, then the cloud has strategic value for you because it will fundamentally change your cost structure.

On the other hand, if you are an external-facing CIO, if the IT system is part of what your company sells to its customers and if you have direct contact with the company's customers, then you're not likely to see the cloud as transformational. If IT is part of your competitive advantage in ...