Rizwan Jan is VP and Chief Information Officer of The CNA Corporation.
A chief information officer (CIO) needs to be more than just a technical expert. To align technology with business objectives, CIOs need to exhibit a combination of strong leadership, clear communication and strategic thinking. But how can IT leaders turn their goals into reality? After two decades of planning, developing and delivering technical solutions for businesses of all sizes, I’ve identified a few key elements of an effective CIO strategy.
Aligning Technology With Business Strategy
One of the biggest mistakes IT leaders make is allowing technology initiatives to operate in isolation. Instead, IT should be integrated into every part of business planning and decision-making, turning it into a force multiplier that helps the company advance toward its goals.
To do this, IT leaders need to ditch the technical jargon and communicate in terms that business leaders understand. It’s also critical to map IT initiatives back to the overarching strategic plan. Many companies start off strong here, but eventually, side projects emerge, and CIOs find themselves chasing the latest shiny objects, like AI or blockchain, without a clear business case in mind. The result: conflicts or disconnect between IT and executive leadership.
Innovation And Governance
Innovation is essential to staying competitive, but it must be balanced with governance. Successful organizations create environments that encourage experimentation while still maintaining oversight. Finding the sweet spot where teams can push boundaries without breaking critical systems is key. This can mean creating a “safe sandbox” where teams can test new ideas without jeopardizing core operations. With buy-in from executive stakeholders, the sandbox approach can make it possible to scale up successful innovations in a controlled manner to enterprise-wide solutions.
Investing In Skill Development
A forward-thinking CIO strategy has to prioritize continuous learning and skill development. Without ongoing training, teams risk falling behind in the rapidly evolving IT world. Investing in professional growth equips employees with the latest technical and leadership skills and helps attract and retain top talent.
That’s why I always make it a priority to upskill my staff. If you don’t have a training or development budget, people will walk—or not join up in the first place—and your workforce won’t be equipped to drive innovation. Training can include things like webinars, boot camps, industry conferences and professional community participation. Places like the CIO Forum let IT leaders exchange ideas, share strategies and learn from each other’s successes and failures. (You may not like everything you hear, but even learning what not to do can be valuable.)
Measuring And Tracking Progress
Like any evolving plan, a CIO strategy has to be measurable. Setting clear KPIs and tracking progress regularly helps IT leaders stay on course. These KPIs fall into two categories. Business metrics track customer satisfaction, efficiency and cost savings. For example, CIOs can use service desk surveys to gauge customer satisfaction or operational improvements through process automation.
Technology-specific metrics monitor system uptime, deployment speed and technology adoption rates. Are the servers stable? How quickly are new tools being deployed? Are employees and customers actually using the new technology?
Being able to answer these questions ensures that your IT efforts contribute directly to business success in quantifiable ways. Regularly reviewing and refining KPIs is critical to keeping any CIO strategy relevant and responsive.
Building Executive Trust And Alignment
For a CIO to be truly effective, they need to establish strong relationships with executive leadership, particularly the CFO. Without executive buy-in, even the most well-crafted IT strategies will struggle to gain traction. When IT leaders communicate frequently and transparently with the executive team, it gives them the flexibility to move more freely and adapt quickly to changing priorities.
By focusing on these core areas, CIOs can turn their vision into reality and contribute to the success of their organization, regardless of size or industry.
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