Chief Information Officers don't have it easy. They often feel squeezed by impossible budgets, ridiculous business demands and techno-ignorant colleagues. I know, I've been there. In the last 10 years through my different companies, I've acted as a virtual CIO for countless small and medium sized companies.

Looking back, I can say that my biggest challenge never was any of the aforementioned. It was usually about communicating a solid definition of what a CIO can and can't do, managing expectations from the onset and delivering. Sounds easy, and it is when you have this tool. It's a poster that now adorns my office wall.

In 2006, CIO Magazine came up with the "IT Value Matrix," after 18 months of collaborative effort, as a tool to let IT stop being defensive about what it costs the firm and go on the offense by articulating the value it provides.

This is how it works:
"The matrix identifies approximately 130 components, grouped under three key practice areas' stakeholder alignment, communication and the CIO role. It's organized for drilling down from general to specific. For example, to achieve stakeholder alignment, CIOs need both knowledge and action. To learn what type of knowledge, you drill down one level and find four types: stakeholder analysis, political and cultural issues, technology trends and business dynamics."

In tandem with the Matrix, the CIO executive council developed "Seven Keys to IT Leadership"

1. The primary goal of IT is to align with major enterprise objectives. Every initiative must be clearly tied in a provable way to business value.

2. Because all major business initiatives are dependent upon technology, the CIO must have a voice at the table at which key business decisions are made.

3. The CIO is responsible for understanding a business’s complexities, influencing peers and presenting technology strategy in terms the business can understand.

4. Technology leaders are agents of change. Transition is our stable state.

5. Communication and relationship building are as important to IT leadership as technology skills are.

6. Successful technology leadership must strike a balance between competing forces: short-term versus long-term, technology versus business focus, leading versus enabling.

7. The CIO is responsible for cultivating technology leadership at all levels.

If you're a CIO, you need this.  If you have a CIO in your team, do your company a favor and go over this with the CIO. If you use technology in your company, this tool will help manage expectations.

The file is available in this post too. Start enjoying your CIO life.

it_value_matrix.pdf
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I have the joy of teaching a Technology Entrepreneurship class at L'École Polytechnique de Montréal. Picture a class of 50 students who have been trained for 4+ intensive years to think inside the Engineering Box, to memorize what the box holds and to apply standards of the box in their jobs - and you get 50 minds hungry for creativity. My class is usually the last one of their engineering studies so it puts me in a great position to counter-act the brain-washing years they were subjected to. I know... I've been there.

The class is not a hard one. I believe the theoretical principles of entrepreneurship are quite easy. Everything is in
- the discovery of our personal values
- the application of those simple principles
- the determination to keep at it until the company has been built into something of value.

Their task is to come up with an idea, prepare a sensible business plan and, most importantly, present it convincingly to myself and a panel of VCs. They have 12 weeks to do that - and I know most of them wait till the last 2 weeks to really get started.

After almost 4 years of teaching the class, I've come across some surprising ideas and business opportunities which never ceases to give me hope in the fascinating inner-creativity engineers have when given the chance. Here is the list of projects from this year's creative crop.

- An innovative way to present science to primary school kids and elders alike
- A spit-alyser that measures marijuana consumption of drivers
- A Canadian-specific online movie rental and streaming solution
- An advanced, yet simple, pill-reminder and distribution system for elders
- A turnkey system to create an video inventory of your personal assets for insurance purposes
- A wireless SAAS system to collect hard-to-find data from municipal water infrastructures
- An interesting automated wall painting solution
- A unique 'gypse' recycling solution
- A tire-changing machine to avoid the back-related injuries of mechanics
- A power-consumption optimization solution for corporation and consumers
- A head-hunting firm specializing in the placement of semi-retired / retired individuals
- An ad network using LCD screens in public places
- A life-brokering solution for elders at home to increase their at-home  quality of life
- An innovation-based network for corporations and individuals to promote sharing and learning
- A process-optimizing solution for corporations
- An in-grocery store and web solution to quickly enter the basket, see the specials and map out the optimal route to fill the said basket

I get at least 2 groups a year that actually start a business project and take the next post-academic step into the world of entrepreneurship... and it makes me so proud. I end up coaching these teams in their growth to profitability and when it happens, I get that paternal 'snif-snif-my-kids-are-all-grown-up' feeling.

she is cruel
she is kind
 
she surprises me by constantly reinventing herself,
yet she is unpredictable and often refuses to cooperate for no good reason

she seduces me with the promise of more time
yet laughs at me when I’m enslaved in her wiles
 
she remembers everything about me
yet I now can’t function without her

she let’s me learn everything about the outside world
yet ties me to an isolated chair for days to do it

she creates solutions to complex issues and problems I have
yet often, those problems had never existed until she came along

she gives me feelings of security and invulnerability,
yet she often reminds me how fragile I really am

she gives me euphoric feelings of freedom
yet she refuses to let me go out of her hold

she lets the world know who I was, who I am, who I know, what I know, what I did, what I am doing, where I’ve been, where I am, where I’m going and how I’m going to get there…whether I want it or not

she brings more people together than anyone else I know
yet she divides more people than anyone else I know

she helps me deepen and rekindle true and lasting relationships
yet she helps me create instant relationships, based on minimal effort and superficial interests

she permits me to travel anywhere in the world
yet she must come along for the ride, isolating me from the wonderful people around me
 
she creates more jobs than anyone else I know
yet she lays off more people than anyone else I know

she helps me reduce my operating expenses and generate more sales
yet she constantly requires high maintenance and has an increasing stranglehold on my budgets and spending

she embodies all that is evil and destructive in the world
she holds the potential to eradicate all living organisms

she embodies all that is good and creative in the world
she holds the hope and promise of solving all human and natural issues
 
she is cruel
she is kind
she is technology