Chief Information Officers must act now to enable their organisations to thrive in a difficult new world.

PA Consulting Group's book 'The zombie economy' examines the economic crisis and the impact it has had on four major economic groups - creating half dead, half alive zombies: banks, governments, companies and consumers. As a result, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) need to rise above the usual complexity of their role to help the business like never before in the post credit crisis zombie economy.

To order your free copy of 'The zombie economy' please click here.

With IT taking an increasing proportion of corporate costs it is critical that CIOs act now to respond to the new corporate landscape, to help preserve liquidity and enable their businesses to thrive.  

How CIOs can help their business overcome the threat of the zombie economy
In the new economy, CIOs must rise above the usual complexity of their role as never before, and their focus becomes simple, critically evaluating all activity and programmes to only continue with those that:

1. Save money. IT still has great potential to save money.  If priority one for the company post-crisis is to create liquidity, then priority one for the CIO is to use IT to take out more cost and help make sure the cash is not wasted

2. Make money.  IT is at the heart of every aspect of the business model, including the interface to the customer. In the zombie world, IT can help create winning business opportunities, or kill them if it doesn’t work for the customer. 

3. Create leaders.  New market plays to catch the upturn depend on creative leaders who understand the difference between an interesting technology and a business opportunity. The CIO needs to be growing talent that understands a newly IT-aware market, with customers hooked on doing things their way.

4. Manage risk.  While the world moves at zombie pace, risk will move faster.  It helps a lot if you know where your business is, what your markets are doing, what your customers think.  IT can help provide the sort of information you need to run a business where the downside is prevalent, based on fast business intelligence.

This requires setting a clear ambition to identify the winning portfolio, getting tough and stopping initiatives that are failing to deliver value, however big of long-standing they may be,  and realigning the controls or everyday business to allow room for agility and creativity.

To order a copy of 'The zombie economy' please click here.

To discuss the role that the CIO in successfully steering your business through the zombie economy please contact us now.