Ron Blitstein

CIO Longevity Diagnostic

If you've been in the CIO seat at your organization for some time now, the odds are stacked against you sitting there much longer. It's widely understood that the average tenure for a CIO is not much more than four years. How can you beat those odds?

You know exactly why you were hired, what problem you were brought in to solve. Since then, you've solved that problem and cracked the code on the stuff that wasn't of top-level concern from the start. But over time, while you've been entrenched in one major initiative after another, the business and its needs have evolved. The landscape and intercompany alliances have changed. Now, to continue your success, it's time you make sure you know exactly what's going on in your organization, and recalibrate your goals and strategies to be in balance with the current climate.

Assess the As-Is Then Lay Out a Plan

Cutter's CIO Longevity Diagnostic, developed by Ron Blitstein, Director of Cutter's Business Technology Strategies practice, a former CIO and advisor to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and NGOs, is structured around developing a meaningful agenda that takes into account the perceptions of 7 key constituencies:

1. Your boss
2. Line of business heads
3. Functional heads, like HR and Finance
4. Key vendors
5. IT leadership, including your direct reports and their immediate subordinates
6. IT employees, and
7. Shadow IT groups

Through a series of conversations with you, interviews with members of these 7 groups, and optional assessments, Cutter Consortium will help you understand just where you are today, the obstacles you face, and the opportunities that are open to you. Then, we'll help you lay out a plan that makes it possible to:

• Renew your understanding of the corporate strategy and assess how well IT is aligned with that strategy
• Identify key success factors for IT from the perspective of all business unit and functional heads
• Refine your leadership style and communicate your goals to your team
• Structure your time to create short-term value while revising your plan for the long-term
• Maintain productive relationships with influential people and rebuild the right coalitions
• Understand the current state of the relationship between IT and each business unit or corporate function.

Secure Your Future

Ultimately, to be best-positioned for longevity as CIO, the question you must ask yourself, and that Cutter will help you answer, is: How do I maximize shareholder value while still ensuring my continuity in office? With the support of Cutter's CIO Longevity Diagnostic, you'll be able to thoroughly examine the critical areas you must understand before you can refocus and communicate your IT strategies and tactics.

The likelihood is that the seeds of change are already taking root somewhere in your organization. With the information you glean and the action you're able to take based up Cutter's Longevity Diagnostic, you'll find yourself much more securely positioned for the future.