What You'll Learn

A Two-day intensive workshop for CIOs and their direct reports to learn how to be strategic in IT Alignment and Leadership. The topics covered in this workshop:

• The historical trends and forces behind the ascendancy of the modern corporate CIO and how these compel a CIO to have a central role in the strategic business planning efforts of the company.
• Why the focus of the modern CIO should be on IT Alignment.
• The many advantages of doing IT Alignment correctly.
• How to make the financial argument for IT Alignment, Part I: The "why" and "how-to" of calculating ROIs for the strategic elements of IT projects.
• Building the business case when ROI isn't enough: The importance of intangibles for proposed IT projects and their relationship to the strategic business goals.
• The importance of Post Project Audits as part of the justification for proposed IT projects and their role in the IT Alignment plan.
• The Universal and critical mandate for IT Alignment.
• The principles of leadership and how the CIO uses them to strengthen the IT Alignment process.
• What are the challenges the CIO will face when s/he first tries to introduce IT Alignment in an organization and how should these be addressed?
• What business skills, communication skills, political skills and focus are required of a CIO as s/he implements a successful IT Alignment program?
• A practical process for implementing IT Alignment process: The five steps of IT Alignment.
• A real-life example: One company's IT Alignment plan.
• Corporate political communications: Building consensus at the CXO level (a tutorial).
• An exploration of the various CXO business perspectives and agendas and how to use these to your advantages in the IT Alignment process.
• Corporate political capital: What is it, why is it important, and how do you accumulate it?