Ghemawat's look at internationalization of business was followed by a presentation on how CIOs' thoughts are changing from Harvey Koeppel, executive director of the Center for CIO Leadership, an organization in which IBM has invested.
Koeppel said that CIOs surveyed in 2007 said they felt they did not have a seat at the decision-making table within their organizations in 2006, mainly because other executives did not really know much about the CIO's role in a company.
That changed quickly. Eighty percent of CIOs said that in 2007 they believed themselves to be valued members of their companies' leadership teams. "The big takeaway was that CIOs and their business partners felt they were much more involved ," Koeppel said. "There was significant recognition that internal and external satisfaction among CIOs is way up."
As CIOs step into more of a leadership role, it is important that business partners do so as well, Koeppel said. "No more talking about MIPs or tons," he said. "You need to talk with CIOs about what it takes to make their companies more profitable."
