What CEOs worry about -- and how IT can help

Gartner analysts looked at various surveys about CEO business concerns... and then made recommendations about how CIOs can respond. Here are the highlights:

CEO concern: In many countries, business confidence is weakening; strategies might have to change quickly.
IT action: Prepare for strategy shifts by building flexibility into IT portfolios.

CEO concern: Senior executives are suffering from information overload.
IT action: Provide productivity tools to senior execs (and help them deal with all of that e-mail!).

CEO concern: Many CEOs see IT as both an opportunity and an obstacle when looking to introduce or exploit disruptive change.
IT action: Explicitly link technology projects to key business pain points and opportunities. Focus on exploiting information. Assist the CEO in making strategic changes.

CEO concern: Mergers and acquisitions are back.
IT action: Make the enterprise architecture modular so that mergers and acquisitions are easier to do.

CEO concern: The return-on-assets (ROA) metric is gaining ground.
IT action: Make ROA a metric for testing IT investments. Focus on investments that will lead to long-term staff reductions and quality improvements. Look for investments that will yield a tenfold improvement in the target metric in the long term.

CEO concern: Regulation is getting more pervasive.
IT action: Create an early-warning "regulatory radar scope" (dashboard) to help managers anticipate and manage regulatory compliance.

Oh, and by the way, Gartner advises: "Do not wait for the CEO to come to IT. Be proactive, suggesting IT-based business changes that meet the company's strategic goals."

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This is adapted (by me) from "How CEO Concerns Should Drive 2006 IT Strategies," Jan. 9, 2006, Gartner Research ID Number: G00136696.