Chicago CIO Inner Circle

Sometimes it comes from your team; sometimes it comes from the board; and sometimes, it comes from the sales rep on your voicemail. It’s the constant chorus of “transformation.” As the drumbeat of change swirls around the enterprise, CIOs are uniquely positioned in the calm eye of the storm to give shape, meaning, and direction to this change. By seizing control of a shifting world, IT leaders can create the best future for their businesses and their careers.

In this dinner conversation, you and your peers will develop concrete tools for harnessing and delivering transformation – before it’s delivered to you.    

 Shaping the Changing Role of the CIO

• What do you believe is the future of the CIO role? What do you believe should be the next step for the role, and what can you do currently to influence that evolution?
• What career path do you envision for yourself? What opportunities exist to get there?
• How has the ownership of technology changed within your organization? Is it shifting to a specific role (CTO, CDO) or other areas of the business?
• As technology becomes synonymous with business, what can you do to ensure that you maximize your influence in strategic decision-making?
• Action: Name 2-3 concrete steps you can take in the next month to drive your career/role forward.

New models of IT

• How have the boundaries shifted between IT and the business? How does the push and pull between business and IT impact governance, funding models, and accountability for projects within your organization?
• CIOs have long demonstrated value by championing successful revenue-driving projects; as businesses become increasingly digital and disruption more prevalent, what does “revenue driving” look like now? Are you becoming more product-focused? What should your role be in business-generation?
• What is happening to your budgets in the age of “digital transformation?” Whether they are growing or shrinking, how are you adapting your strategies?
• In practical terms, what are you doing to tie IT spend to increased competitive advantage for your organization? How are you measuring/demonstrating this?
• Action: Develop 2-3 concrete steps you can take in the next month to improve the business impact of the IT function.

Emerging Technologies

• What criteria do you use to identify where and how to apply new technology (chatbots, blockchain, AI, VR/AR, etc.)?  What questions are you getting from your Board around these capabilities?
• How are you applying/considering applying AI in the organization, internally and with external customers (to solve evolve security concerns, customer service experience)?
• How far are you into your implementations, and what's the biggest lesson you've learned so far from that deployment?
• What, if any, friction exists between what technology says is possible and your organization’s current capabilities? What are you doing to close that capabilities’ gap?
• Action: Clearly define 2-3 essential steps you can take to better prepare your organization for fast-paced innovation.