The CIO’s relationships have always involved managing “up” with their executive peers and managing “down” within the IT organisation. With outsourcing, CIOs also managed “across” a network of providers. Tomorrow’s CIO will increasingly be asked to be the face of the organisation to customers and other business partners.
According to Tom Trainer, executives of the future will know that merely looking over their shoulders at what the competition is doing with technology will only strengthen the competition. They will know that the appropriate level and mix of investment in technology is a function of what their own firms are trying to achieve strategically. They must know that managing technology is as important as the technology itself. The next generation of leaders will understand, or should if they want to succeed, that they must invest in the management of technology as well as in the technology itself. If there is any remaining doubt today, there will not be in the future: technology per se is an equaliser. Only in the management of it can firms eke out advantage. Unless they appreciate that business technology often plays a critical role in establishing or maintaining a strategic position, future leaders may well spend inappropriately.

But appreciation must evolve to an understanding of how the various types of technology–those that enable transactions, for example, or decisions or relationships–contribute to a firm’s strategic actions. More often than not in the first half century of business technology, it was thought about only tactically. Technology leaders must “follow the money.” They must focus on the business, and understand how it earns a profit. They must understand the business strategy: with regard to each product-market, is the firm in an exploratory or exploitative posture? And tomorrow’s leaders will be far more comfortable with deriving value through partnerships and other types of engagements with other firms. They must understand the role technology plays in enabling these partnerships.
What are the implications of these changes for Indian companies? First, as more Indian companies seek to position themselves to compete globally, they must recognise the innovation potential of ICT and enable their CIOs to emerge as business leaders. Second, for the booming Indian IT services industry, an awareness of the CIO’s business leadership role will help in understanding how to work with the CIOs in developing winning IT products and services.