Technology Business Management Defines the Modern CIO

Back in 2012, a group of Fortune 500 CIOs came together to form a non-profit organization called The Technology Business Management Council (TBM Council). CIOs like Tim Campos of Facebook, Mike Benson of DIRECTV, Larry Godec of First American, and Robb Webb, formerly of Hilton Hotels and now CEO of TBM, wanted to work together to help CIOs improve their ability to provide value to their businesses.

Today, the TBM Council is dedicated to promoting best practices for managing IT like a business. TBM provides a methodology and discipline for managing the business of IT and is used by more than 1,200 senior IT leaders globally.

Last year, I attended the inaugural TBM Conference and was impressed with how much the group had accomplished since inception. So, imagine my delight when they asked me to chair the 2014 TBM Awards program and emcee the ceremony at the legendary Fontainebleau in Miami on October 28th.

My first order of business was to define five awards categories. These categories, to my mind, outline the challenge and focus of the successful modern CIO:

• The IT Transformation Award celebrates CIOs who are shifting their teams from “order takers to order shapers” and finding new ways to deliver under increasingly heavy demand.
  
  Related article - CIO.com: Running IT Like a Business, my interview with Rob Webb, CEO of the TBM Council
  
  
• The Infrastructure Trailblazer Award acknowledges that we have been referring to infrastructure as a “commodity” for too long. Infrastructure is the locus for a great deal of innovation these days and can move from commodity status to becoming a company’s strategic advantage.
  
  
• The Digital Innovator Award recognizes that digital technologies are changing businesses from the back office to the front office, and that CIOs must play a leadership role in defining digital strategies for their companies.
  
  
• The IT Financial Pioneer Award emphasizes that a CIO’s best tool for communicating IT strategy is financial acumen; CIOs who have built financial excellence into their organizations do a better job with telling the story of IT.
  
  
• The TBM Champion Award applauds leaders who are institutionalizing Technology Business Management as a methodology within their organizations.