Book Review: Four Steps to Becoming a Top-Tier CIO

The elite CIOs -- perhaps the 25 most successful CIOs in the nation -- already know what's in this book, which is why they're so successful. The Real Business of IT , by Richard Hunter and George Westerman (Harvard Business Press, 2009), is for the rest of us. It's about how to go from being a pretty good CIO to being a great one.

The book covers the following steps for moving IT from the role of cost center to that of a value creator:

• Avoid the "value traps." An example of a value trap is thinking that your job is to deliver great technology for the enterprise. The reality is that your job is to use IT to dramatically improve business performance and business outcomes. Unless you view it that way, you're setting up IT to get credit for cost and trouble, but not for value.
• Show that IT produces value. As the "cheap information officer," you demonstrate that the IT organization is providing the right services, at the right level of quality, at a competitive price.
• Demonstrate how IT improves business performance. As "chief improvement officer," you help business people make the connection between IT investment and improved business performance.
• Show how you have value outside IT. As the " CIO-plus ," you operate as a peer with other business executives and provide value beyond IT itself. Some CIOs have been so successful with IT and process improvement that they get additional duties overseeing the supply chain, facilities or all shared services, for example.

Hunter and Westerman also provide eye-opening advice about the importance of benchmarking your IT operation against those of world-class peers, and how to establish metrics that will demonstrate your IT shop's value to other top executives.

Most companies have only a handful of metrics that really matter to business leaders. Find out what they are. Which ones affect executive compensation? Which metrics does the CEO monitor every day? Once you know that, you'll know how to demonstrate real business value in terms the CEO understands. The book emphasizes the importance of not only creating business value, but communicating it properly.