The CIO Playbook: Strategies and Best Practices for IT Leaders to Deliver Value

Preface

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.

—Oscar Wilde

These are times for transformation. The economy is shifting from recession to recovery. Companies are transitioning from cost containment to value creation. Chief information officers (CIOs) are uniquely positioned to help their organizations create a critical turning point by leveraging technology to drive innovation and business growth.

Whether you are an information technology (IT) leader or a business professional who leverages technology to help drive results, you will find that this book offers insightful and practical advice and strategies to help you maximize the effect of IT on your business. While the technologies constantly change at a dramatic pace, the practices I describe in this book are timeless and can help you transform your IT department from a mere order taker to a high-performance organization that delivers extraordinary business outcomes, despite this era of turbulent economic challenges.

To begin this journey, I examine the pressing questions that IT practitioners ask themselves and often struggle with answering: How do I truly partner with my business peers? How do I ensure that my team is focused on the right innovations? How do I deliver high-quality products and services that are embraced by my user community? What strategies should I employ to run my department like a business and measure performance? How can I manage and minimize risks so ...