The value of IT leaders

Many companies rely heavily on IT governance systems to unite IT and business managers and help them make effective IT investments. But committee meetings and processes don't command as much attention as a trusted colleague can, so governance systems by themselves come up short when companies need to make tough trade-offs among technology choices. Companies need a single credible IT leader who can strike the right balance between using governance systems and working directly with colleagues to forge a common vision. Relationships between IT and business units at companies with trusted IT leaders differ strikingly from the same relationships at companies that lack them.

 
To find an IT leader who can build trust with both business executives and the IT staff, companies must often appoint nonstereotypical CIOs. One large global energy group rotates business executives into the role for a set period to ensure that a person with business skills runs IT and that the business units are then seeded with IT-savvy managers. For more on what makes effective IT leaders, read "What IT leaders do" (Web exclusive, August 2005).