The CIO in 2012: 13 Ways to Thrive

SHI's Managing Partner of Strategic Consulting Provides a Checklist for Senior-Level IT Managers

Rich Taggart disagrees with pundits who claim that IT headcount will decrease in the coming years.

But because the responsibilities of CIOs will continue to evolve quickly in the short-term, the former Disney CIO offers a 13-point checklist to help IT Managers adapt.

"IT isn't going to disappear and business can't move forward without IT moving forward," he said. "The last 50 years in IT were focused on technology, the next 50 will be about turning Information into something meaningful that allows CIOs to make intelligent business decisions and better serve customers."

Addressing a ballroom full of IT leaders at the 2010 New Jersey CIO Summit, Rich weaved in anecdotes from his time as Walt Disney Company Senior VP and Corporate CIO and shared 25+ years of industry experience in the form of a checklist of business-tested ideas for thriving in today's rapidly changing IT landscape:


  1. Examine your Value Proposition. How is your staff really spending its time and what projects are/aren't adding business value?
  2. Evaluate your Services Model to be sure your IT services are clear to the business. Does every employee know how to obtain IT services and – if all else fails - is there is a "relief valve" (an informed human being) to help inform and educate?
  3. Review your Funding Model. Assess your IT costs' transparency, understand how the business can adjust those costs and identify who holds which pieces of the technology budget.
  4. Strengthen Governance by ensuring that consistent, transparent management decisions are made at the right leadership level. Be sure cohesive organizational behaviors and policies are established and promoted.
  5. Clarify Decision Rights and degrees of freedom within the organization. Readjust when necessary.
  6. Connect with - and provide proper funding and support to - the Revenue Producers and innovators in Marketing, Sales, R&D and New Business Development.
  7. Consider hiring Business Technology Partners from departments like Marketing or Sales who can utilize their deep business expertise to innovate and revitalize IT.
  8. Ensure you're leveraging or are building a Digital Platform for the most critical business functions.
  9. For process oriented companies (or where there is a need to create an end-to-end digital platform), recruit a Process Information Officer (a CIO if possible) to reshape critical business processes.
  10. Measure and Communicate your IT progress. Focus only on key metrics like operational excellence, business performance, innovation and collaboration.
  11. Empower your Innovation Team with the freedom to experiment with technology. Measure its ability to enhance business success.
  12. If you're rethinking Outsourcing and are dissatisfied with current contracts, consider shortening agreements, multi-sourcing and exploring cloud-based alternatives.
  13. Research Cloud options to fully understand the different services, providers and accompanying benefits/disadvantages.

SHI CEO Thai Lee agreed with Rich's points, both as value to SHI's customers as well as internally.

"I am positive that our ability to execute on these points is what makes SHI a leader in providing strategic consulting and deploying IT solutions for our customers," she said. "This is critical to getting us and our clients where we all need to go."

The 2010 NJ CIO Summit gathered CIOs and Senior-Level IT managers at the New Brunswick Hyatt to share best practices and strengthen leadership skills that would enhance their organization's ability to succeed in today's competitive business climate. Those invited were from Garden State-based organizations from 1,000 PCs through global enterprises in telecom, pharmaceuticals and beyond.


To find out what Rich Taggart's Strategic Consulting practice (or SHI's Professional Services
Organization) can do for your organization, contact your SHI Account Executive or
e-mail [email protected] to get started today.