Global CIO: Do CIOs Still Matter?Global CIO: Do CIOs Still Matter?

7) Lead The Social Upheaval.
Social media aren't the solution to every problem and, yes, they introduce some additional complexity. But you know what? You can say the same for PCs, and for Blackberries, and for spreadsheets and everything this side of stone tablets. The argument must center on what is taking place out in the market and among your customers and prospects and not on what will make life less complicated for admittedly short-staffed IT teams. So don't fight them--embrace them, lead the effort, and jump in with both feet on Salesforce.com's new Chatter beta--it will change forever your view of social media as silly toys.

8) Be A Business-Model Buster:
Oh, sorry--are CIOs not supposed to be involved with business models? Are CIOs supposed to just sit quietly with the other back-benchers until told what to do? Is your job limited to strictly "supporting" the business rather than helping to drive it, change it, shape it, and grow it? Well if that's what you think, then please change your title to IT Director and step out of the way to make room for a real CIO who's interested in applying deep-domain industry and and IT knowledge to pricing models, distribution channels, new partnerships, new logistics possibilities, online promotions, product packaging, and more. If you don't think this is part of your job, then you'd better have a time machine handy to take you back 10-20-30 years, because this is what CIOs will be made of from here on out.

9) Revise Compensation For The Entire IT Organization.
Tie all discretionary income--not 2% of it or 40%, but all of it--to business outcomes: revenue growth, profitability, customer engagements, product rollouts, customer loyalty, etc. SLAs are and will be important but they are not strategic--they're just not, and you need to stop treating them as such. When the IT team is paid according to a whole different set of metrics than the rest of the company, is it really a surprise that everyone else treats you as detached outsiders who are disconnected from the core business?

10) Expand Your Executive Sponsor Role.
Like the other C-level folks, you've got a couple of customers for whom you serve as the executive sponsor, the first line of contact for serious issues. But think back to 2009 and evaluate what sort of job you did for those customers: on your list of your top 5 priorities, where they #14? Were you a passive sponsor--answering questions and complaints as they arose, attending the opening of the new facility, going golfing a few times--or did you have your top web-operations person spend a week with that customer offering suggestions and feedback? Have you gone deep with them on how tighter IT-enabled connections could lower their costs or increase their speed or, heaven forbid, get them to spend more money with you? CIOs who matter will be aggressively and deeply engaged with top customers--make this a priority.

Okay, folks, that's one knucklehead's opinion--what do you think? Share your ideas with your friends and peers by sending them to [email protected].

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