Transforming Business Culture into Creativity, Collaboration and Innovation
There is emerging boardroom-level recognition that a competitive advantage can be achieved by having
a technology-grounded, business-savvy CIO leader. This type of CIO can facilitate the innovation of
new solutions and services that are attractive to customers. To inspire higher levels of innovation in
an organization, it is essential to leverage communication and collaboration technologies that enable
people to work better together, produce more and deliver superior service experiences to customers.
There are several levels at which a CIO can play a critical role in transforming corporate culture.
One traditional way is to listen to colleagues across all business units, then, translate their input into
a technology strategy that supports their collective needs. Although valuable, this is still somewhat
operationally focused.
A more strategic role involves the CIO, teaming with peer executives, to infuse technology-powered
business objectives into early strategy discussions. As a key contributing player, a strategic CIO can
introduce emerging technology opportunities to which only they may be privy. They can make
recommendations, and perhaps suggest new business models, to the executive team.