Brian P. Watson

Communicating value and creating value have a direct connection, say the authors of the new book The Real Business of IT (Harvard Business Press; available Oct. 20, 2009). Those IT leaders who find the sweet spot can find limitless opportunities as CIOs–or much, much more–as Gartner Fellow Richard Hunter and MIT Research Scientist George Westerman […]

It’s rare that you get to see a CIO bring the house down. But that’s exactly what happened this spring, when I moderated a panel on cloud computing. Along with a CIO, representatives from three vendors discussed what the cloud is, what it could be and what it should mean for enterprises. Not to knock […]

Plenty of CIOs consider their IT operations to be “world class,” but what does that really mean? In his new book, World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When Technology Triumphs, Peter High chronicles five essential ingredients for meeting this lofty, and often misused, designation. Along with those five principles come anecdotes from some of the […]

Andrew McAfee may have been a Web 2.0 skeptic before he coined the phrase “Enterprise 2.0” in 2006, but now he’s a believer. He makes the case in his long-awaited book, Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization’s Toughest Challenges (Dec. 1, Harvard Business Press). While collaborative tools like Twitter and Facebook have enjoyed […]

Last month, in his analysis column, Columbia University Professor Art Langer posed a simple question to IT leaders: What’s in a relationship? Langer’s point was simple: Relationships are everything. The key to relationship building is bringing value, he says. If CIOs can demonstrate the value of IT, they’ll get buy-in and support from the business. […]

What’s training really worth? At the most basic level, it increases your employees’ know-how and helps them better do their jobs. Yet, too often, CIOs train their workers on technologies that will benefit the IT operation, but not necessarily the overall business. Also too often, those IT pros take their certifications or newly acquired skills […]

Ask CIOs if they have solid relationships with business leaders, and they’ll likely say, “Yes.” Ask business leaders about their CIOs, and you’ll likely hear a different story. And this disconnect has only increased. Nor does the apparent easing of the recession mean CIOs can rest easy. Just as no one knew exactly how bad […]

The past 12 months haven’t been easy for CIOs. But have the last 12 years? We’ve talked plenty about leading in tough times. We knew that would be a given after the bottom dropped out late in 2008. Now it’s time to start talking more about post-recession strategy. And while we’re at it, we should […]

CIOs are no stranger to crisis. For many, each new day brings a brand-new potential disaster. Bill George, the longtime chairman and CEO of Medtronic, examines his and other leaders’ courage under fire in his new book, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis. In this chapter, George–now a professor at Harvard Business School–reveals a simple […]

IBM’s newly released Global CIO study sends a loud signal to those who still focus on tactical IT operations: It’s time to shift gears. The executive summary of the study, which surveyed more than 2,500 IT leaders across the globe, states something most CIOs know: The best IT leaders are strategic thinkers, they drive change […]

Thanks to the economy, two things are happening across corporate America more than before: Executives are starting to truly understand the reach–and potential power–of IT, and CIOs are coming to the realization that they must do a better job partnering with the business. None of this is new to Rob Carter, though. Carter, the executive […]