CIOs: How to survive the recession, and position for growth

I had a chat with Shvetank Shah, executive director of the IT practice at the Corporate Executive Board, about what CIOs can do to cope with the recession. I asked him for practical, realistic steps, not the consultant-blather we hear elsewhere like "innovate your way out of it" (what does that mean exactly, and how would you afford it?).

Shah's pragmatic response had three elements:

1. Preserve cash. IT projects have to be what he called "capex-lite."
2. Protect the infrastructure. Keep the lights on and the e-mail flowing.
3. Position for growth, when the economy recovers.

Regarding No.3,  Shah suggested keeping a small amount of "hard resources" devoted to innovation -- a lab, a garage, two people -- whatever you can afford. And keep the pipeline of good ideas flowing, even if that just means a spreadsheet or list of ideas to pursue when the time is right. Then, when certain business conditions or "triggers" are met, you can have a conversation with business execs about getting funding for those ideas.

I asked what else CIOs are talking about these days, and his answer surprised me. "I'm more worried about what CIOs are NOT talking about." Huh? Shah says that in this mega-recession corporations are undergoing a tremendous shift in their business models, such as the collapse of consumer demand, which may last five or 10 years. What does that mean for marketing, CRM and pricing systems, for example? "No one's having that conversation," Shah says. Since IT strategy is supposed to be aligned or even interwined with the business strategy -- and the business model is changing dramatically -- that conversation needs to begin soon.

How has your business model changed in the past six months, and how will you reposition IT to match it?

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Related: Coping with economic calamity