Chief information officers (CIOs) are in a unique position, holding a bird’s eye view of what’s going on across the enterprise. Today’s CIOs align IT strategy with corporate mission and goals, optimize and transform business processes for competitive advantage, and respond with agility to keep ahead of rapidly changing global markets, industry disrupters, new business models, and the competition. Additionally, forward thinking CIOs stand at the top of a pyramid of innovation. They oversee:

• Chief innovation officers who initiate game changing opportunities;
• Chief digital officers who leverage e-commerce, social media, and marketing;
• Chief information security officers who safeguard their organization’s intellectual and digital property;
• Chief analytics officers who turn big data into actionable customer insights.

When taken as a whole, the corporate impact is massive, and the CIO must be treated as a critical C-suite partner.