I had almost begun to write this column on the take-home points from our just-concluded CTO Forum annual conference, when I stopped short. The conference, held in the beautiful city of Dublin and in its 11th edition this year, had met with overwhelming success and thus would have been the most obvious choice for me to write about. But we have planned numerous features on the event in this and subsequent issues. So, I thought of sparing this column for something else – very relevant and worth pondering over.

A recently released IDC's report titled “Asia/Pacific Dynamic IT Benchmark 2010” says that the role of the CIO is evolving into a position more tightly aligned with the business drivers of the enterprise. The report also mentions that in future the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the CIOs will feature priorities such as cash flow management, revenue generation and, most importantly, innovation.

These observations won’t ring any alarm bells in our ears. We have been discussing these trends for at least a couple of years if not more. Yet, it’s important to allow some time to take in this report for what it reaffirms is significant – that this change is not only inevitable but is now in the visible range. The new generation of business focused CIOs is expected to drive revenue growth and not just enable business at the back-end and keep the lights on in the data centres. In this context, both the CEO and the Corporate Boards today expect much more from the CIO expecting him to be the agent of change and a leader in innovation. (Read the cover story Great Expectations in this issue).

Having gone through the harrowing experience of economic downturn and grappling with zero-budget for innovation for almost two years now, you, as business leaders in companies of varying sizes and types should start focusing on top-line growth and innovation along with tightly aligning IT with business.

I firmly believe that CIOs gunning for exponential growth can only seize the opportunity if they set their sights on sustainable, growth-focused innovation.

rahul.mani@9dot9.in