Two recent works from leading analyst firms throw down the gauntlet to CIOs: Once IT leaders fully embrace the power they hold in the enterprise, they can stop taking orders and start giving advice.

Curtis A. Carver Jr., vice chancellor and CIO for the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, the Atlanta-based governing authority of 31 educational institutions within the state, takes an even wider view of the CIO’s value. “CIOs are in a unique position to see connections before other members of the C-suite do. Good CIOs help bridge those connections,” he says.

The shift from serving internal clients to focusing on the business’ end customers is necessary for enterprises to thrive, Kark insists. “CIOs have to become customer-obsessed. They have to understand how the technology feeds into the external customer lifecycle. Marketing knows the customer, but it doesn’t have the technology chops that IT does,” he says.

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