In return, they appear to benefit materially from this: 7 in 10 (71%) By focusing on how their views differed from others, we found that of these CIOs strongly agree that their standing within the business a set of six distinctive traits stood out. Collectively, these mark out has materially improved over the past three years, well ahead of the the digital-ready CIOs as role models for any other CIOs seeking to 54% of IT-intensive industry CIOs overall — and even further ahead stand out from the crowd and fulfill their career aspirations. This is of those CIOs who had least prioritized the strategic elements of certainly true for those CIOs getting engaged in a digital their role and their influence on corporate development (just 43%). transformation, but it’s just as applicable more generally for any In fact, across a broad sweep of areas, these CIOs stood out as CIOs simply wanting to gain a stronger voice in their organization. natural leaders. Unsurprisingly, then, they have a far stronger voice After all, these digital-ready CIOs can be seen to hold better career in the business overall. But equally, despite already being highly prospects and are more highly regarded in the business. skilled and well positioned within the business, they remain eager to keep developing their capabilities. We’ve called them the “digital- ready CIOs.” n o i t a v o n n M l i a e n d a o g m i n s g s c e o T n s i t E s s N u X E gb E n i g C M n i Shaping the future Controlling the r U P B of the business impact of IT spend T O with the right on the organization I L technology O E n N V o i E at 6 1 K e D m e or p i f Preparing and Ensuring the n s g n r a developing the 5 The CIO's IT and security th 2 t g organization role needs are up i l e n i r e for change and running t h g v i l o s e D 4 3 n Sustaining and extending the Providing insight “Digital-ready CIOs” are those CIOs who rated 8, 9 or 10 on organization's strategies to support business T a and objectives decisions k i r n e a scale of 1 to 10 on the corporate development aspects of g k o o w r n nb e o their roles based on the wheel model. As EY’s The DNA of r i s t hi a p m r o o f f n the CIO revealed, these qualities are what best enable CIOs I i T n a go s ve ga r n n i t a c n A ce to deliver on core business changes, such as the digital E T transformation now underway. N N A E B M L E Born to be digital | 19