Today's executives are totally dependent on technology to achieve their organization's goals and objectives — without technology they cannot compete. CIOs play a vital role in business strategy development and in framing the business technology strategy — defining the technology direction for the organization in future years to achieve competitive advantage. This research examines how such strategies are formulated and the subsequent impact on IT's role within the business. Smart CIOs — and CEOs — will create a business technology (BT) strategy by developing technology strategy in conjunction with their business strategy. To develop a BT strategy, CIOs must adopt a process that begins and ends with the business, developing the technology strategy with the executive leadership as an integral part of developing the business strategy.