I am always asked for my advice on how I am leading a large and sizeable Information Technology department in these turbulent economic times, in practical terms, a CIO (IT) has to be as much a business process manager as a technology manager.

IT affects virtually every aspect of company operations today. Because of this, understanding where technology can improve a business process, streamline operations and consolidate functionality and resources across business units, or get new customers, for example, is vital. In order to understand this, today's TOP IT Executives like me have to know where the company gets its parts and pieces, and how those things are processed into a product or service someone will buy.

I as a CIO must have command of what are the basic business processes and how they map to IT. I take a leadership position around helping the organization optimize its business processes; leveraging technology and being both champion, visionary and a leader but that requires good alignment between IT and rest of the business.

As a Top IT Executive you have to be “hungry for change” first. An IT Exec is uniquely positioned to be the major business transformation driver for his/her enterprises. We have a special visibility across the enterprise with an understanding of the core processes and information that make the organization tick. We need to be a catalyst for change across the enterprise and, change will require flexible, extendible IT infrastructures to respond to rapid and constant change. So, approaches like SOA, open standards, virtualization and consolidation, converged communications, cloud computing, multi-sourcing and shared services gain new appeal in this environment. Change also brings risk and our jobs are all about managing and minimizing risks so, enhanced risk mitigation, business resiliency, security, and service management initiatives will be a key to success.