06 Mar A CEO And CIO compare their priority lists
For anyone wrestling with deciding what IT projects to keep and which to kill in this recession, here’s a quick test from a CIO I just listened to: If an IT project doesn’t map to a specific CEO priority, you shouldn’t be doing it.
This comment comes in a presentation today by Cuna Mutual Group CEO Jeff Post and CIO Rick Roy, at WTN Media’s Fusion CEO-CIO Symposium in Madison, Wis. Cuna Mutual Group provides financial services to credit unions and had $15.2 billion in assets at the end of 2007, and nearly 4,700 employees.
First, Post (the CEO) laid out his priorities, followed by Roy (the CIO) mapping out his. The punch line was Roy’s PowerPoint slide that said “It’s all about the CEO’s priorities, stupid.” Great gag, but Roy followed with deep insight on how his team maps specific IT initiatives and projects — for example, business intelligence efforts — to CEO priorities, and how doing so affects which projects go ahead and which don’t. “If you can’t translate these initiatives to the CEO’s, you better stop spending time and money on them,” Roy says bluntly. If not, “you’re mowing the front lawn, but the house behind you is burning.”
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