How IT Leaders Can Say Yes Without Killing Projects - Or Their Careers
CIO, Tuesday, May 13th, 2025
Urgent new asks from business execs can disrupt the IT agenda. But being 'the department of no' isn't the answer. Here's how biz-savvy CIOs make the most of a challenging situation.
Last December, when discussing the hard truths of the CIO role with CIO.com's Mary Pratt, West Monroe managing partner Marc Tanowitz observed: 'The great CIOs always say yes. They say yes to what the business wants, but they say, 'But here are the implications. . You have to be OK not doing these other things.'
It's a conversation IT executives are all too familiar with, especially now, with technology moving at ever faster speeds and paradigms like citizen IT, low- and no-code apps, agile, and IoT taking center stage, often without guardrails and other IT quality assurance checks.