Global CIO: Top 10 Stories Of The Year #9: The CIO Transformation

They're getting isolated, marginalized, targeted, and inexorably ground down until nothing is left.

Companies can't afford to have big and fairly expensive operations detached from "the business" and led by executives-in-title-only who aren't part of "the business" and who must instead forever play catch-up with the comings and goings of "the business."

The new and transformed CIO is a business leader prized for applying technical expertise to tying together strategy and execution, to leveraging his/her unique knowledge of the organization's end-to-end business processes, to weaving social technology aggressively into the company's operations and culture, and who's leading the charge to show how IT can generate new and more-profitable forms of customer engagements and partner and supplier dynamics, and who's the antithesis of the "Dr. No" stereotype that has stunted the growth of or crippled the careers of so many CIOs who didn't eliminate the gap between "the business" and IT.

The good news is that in 2011, CEOs continue to be extremely bullish on the power of technology to drive serious competitive advantage and customer opportunities. The bad news for foot-dragging CIOs is that that potential will be unleashed with or without you.

So as we roll out the entire list of The Top 10 Tech Stories for 2010, here's where we stand:

#11: Microsoft: (No, my math's not that bad—it's just that here at Global CIO, we always try to exceed expectations: if we promise 10, we like to deliver at least 11!) Read all about it at Global CIO: Top 10 Tech Stories Of 2010: New Strategies, Platforms, And CEOs.

#10: Cloud Computing: Get the full story and background at Global CIO: Top 10 Tech Stories Of 2010: New Strategies, Platforms, And CEOs.

#9: The CIO Transformation

And below, you'll find some extensive analyses we've done throughout the year on the ongoing transformation of the CIO profession and priorities, from big challenges with mobile and social media to the massive opportunities those and other new technologies afford to CIOs eager to be inextricably interlinked with their businesses.

Coming tomorrow: #8 is smaller than a breadbox and a whole heckuva lot more valuable.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Global CIO: The Top 10 CIO Issues For 2010

Global CIO: Do CIOs Still Matter?

Global CIO: Capgemini Splits CIOs Into 3 Groups, And 2 Are Deadly

Global CIO: The Golden Age Of IT Has Begun: 6 Reasons Why

Global CIO: The Myth Of The Social-Misfit, Business-Bozo CIO

Global CIO: 10 Reasons CIOs Will Get Fired This Year

Global CIO: Will Social Media Kill The CIO?