Next Up: The 21st Century CIO

The pace of technology change — and therefore business expectations and IT culture — is accelerating, fueled by three things: IT's brief but turbulent history, a crush of external forces that reset IT spending and user attitudes, and the strength and resourcefulness of CIOs themselves. To survive in tomorrow's context, a CIO will need to disperse staff and capability out to business units at the same time as they acquire capacity from a supply grid. Meanwhile, the CIO must switch focus from efficiency and cost to enabling greater experimentation and iteration of new ways of competing for the firm. The best will take over their firms' operational services, run P&L lines, become COOs, and in tech services firms, aim sights on becoming CEOs.