Gartner Research

Key Strategies to Move Beyond Your CIO Executive Role

Published: 15 May 2023

Summary

CIOs who aspire to move to a different executive role should follow the paths of those who have successfully made the leap. CIOs should proactively form new habits, support revenue generation, run their IT organizations as a business and pivot their personal brand toward executive leadership.

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Overview

Key Findings
  • Many CIOs have a hard time competing for a line-of-business role, because they “grew up tech,” instead of “grew up business.” For those who came to the CIO role outside of the technology domain, they may still be perceived as a technology person.

  • Some CIOs have successfully made the leap to roles such as CEO, COO, CFO or other business unit leadership roles.

  • CIOs eager to get a business leader role struggle to find the balance between executing on today’s IT operational requirements and partnering with leadership on business strategy. And business management of the IT organization is a prerequisite

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