CIO Summit on IT Governance

Is the role of the CIO over as we know it? This was the topic of discussion at the First CIO Summit on IT Governance held at the Cerritos Sheraton on March 7th, 2014. With over 55 IT executives at the conference with three panels provided guidance on how the Mid Market, Fortune 500 and Service Providers leverage IT Governance to forge ahead.

John Dohm chaired the panel on IT Governance for Mid-Market companies with four leading CIOs on the panel: Jon Grunzweig, Vasu Kadambi, Keith Golden and Tak Fujji.  One of the key points John identified was that if the CIO is talking technology issues/decisions at the Executive level, there is something fundamentally wrong.

Becky Wanta chaired the panel on IT Governance at Fortune 500 companies with four IT Leaders on the panel: Jim Sutter, Joel Manfredo, Maria Fitzpatrick and Jim Thomas. Becky brought out the key point that CIOs must focus on innovation.

Dave Phillips chaired the panel on IT Governance with four cutting edge CEOs: Kevin Parikh, Ravi Chatwani, Jim Savitz and Jason Rosenfeld. Dave’s point was that CEOs of IT companies will bring a very unique perspective on IT Governance that will be beneficial to CIOs.

In summary, if CIOs are talking technology to the leadership team, they will not be able to retain their seat at the executive table.  In the past CIOs were brought in to be the bridge between technology and business. Now leadership looks to how CIOs can bring innovation and revenues to the Enterprise. The best way for a CIO to forge ahead is to ensure that IT Governance is nimble and simple, yet robust to provide sensible direction to run the business of IT that is aligned to the Enterprise.  A good Governance process will leverage tools to guide the stewardship of the IT department, leaving more time to focus on innovation.