13 Quotes by Martha Heller

CIOs, more than any other executive, have an end-to-end view of how the business works and the tools to turn that view into insights. CIOs can see endless opportunities for improvement and change.

Lately, however, I have changed my thinking on this. I have a new Greek mythological figure in mind for the CIO; Cassandra. Cassandra made the critical relationship-building error of spitting on Apollo. As retaliation, Apollo gave Cassandra the power of prophecy, but also the curse of never being believed. (Cassandra eventually goes insane, by the way, so you all have that to look forward to.)

As a CIO, you are the first to step into traffic, to stand alone during a period of change before people come on board. That takes personal courage...Traditionally, in IT, we like to please. But IT is not a popularity contest; it's a reality show where we often have to deliver tough information...Being a CIO means having the courage not to cut corners to please a stakeholder and delivering the hard message that this is not a risk we're willing to take.

If you want to have an impact in your company, have a point of view that sometimes challenges the status quo but do the work required to make the point of view an informed one.

But here's the rub: looking across silos for opportunities to improve capabilities is one thing; creating a vision for how to seize those opportunities as another. Communicating that vision effectively is harder still. But the real work, the deepest work, is in the deciding to stick your neck out in the first place.

In my previous book, The CIO Paradox, I called this phenomenon the "accountability vs. ownership" paradox, where CIOs are responsible for the outcomes of technology implementations but do not have the power to change the business process.

First, you need to understand the attitude that the current executive committee has toward IT," says Richter. "Do they believe that IT is a back-office function and a necessary evil? If the executive committee does not believe in the strategic importance of IT, and you don't have the credibility to change their perspective, your chances of success are very slim. In that case, you may want to look for other professional opportunities elsewhere.

Because IT people can see so much, it is their responsibility to influence investment priorities, not just execute on priorities set by internal business partners.

Someone once told me that, when your operations are not good, you should not talk strategy," says Iyer. "Fair enough. But the opposite is also true. If operations are good, then you must talk strategy.