CIO In the Know – Setting the tone and pace for 2023

2023 has already kicked off with a bang! First off, if you haven’t subscribed to the CIO In The Know newsletter, be sure to do so here. You can view past issues as well.

Last week, I introduced the CIO In The Know newsletter and provided a sneak peek into what’s coming next. This week, there are a number of items that are getting a lot of attention by CIOs.

CIO water cooler talk

The recent layoffs by many of the large tech vendors are largely not causing a lot of concern among CIOs. In some ways, it may be a good thing to even the playing field for enterprises that had struggled to compete against enterprise vendors.

Beyond that, three topics are regularly coming up in my conversations with CIOs:

• Cybersecurity. Across the board, enterprises are looking for new ways to tackle cybersecurity. This is not new but the urgency is growing. One protection mechanism is also likely going away in 2023. Enterprises started to see the writing on the wall in 2022, but in 2023, there is concern that cyber insurance may reach a point where either a) it is too expensive to engage or b) not available. Hence a wholly new approach is needed.
• GPT-3. Most of us have seen what OpenAI’s ChatGPT can do. Enterprises are contemplating how GPT-3 may impact their operations and their business both positively and negatively. How will it disrupt business models? How can CIOs leverage GPT-3 in differentiating ways? There is quite a bit to understand and unpack here as the solution is incredibly complicated.
• Remote/ hybrid work. Most companies are supporting hybrid work in some form while some enterprises have mandated staff to be in the office 2-3 days per week. We knew that the macro-economic conditions and layoffs could put pressure on employee power and swing the balance back toward the employer which would likely mean more in-office mandates. Like clockwork, Disney just announced that they are requiring staff to come into the office 4 days per week. I expect more to take this path furthering the challenges for CIOs in managing hybrid staff and a competitive landscape.

Latest from the blog

New on the blog is the CIO Playbook for 2023. While it’s a snapshot of those items in the CIO playbook as we start the year, I fully expect a mid-year playbook update as the macro-economic conditions ease and enterprises look to the last two quarters and into 2024.

The playbook also addresses several of the ways that CIOs are looking to address spending in 2023 while keeping an eye on the future opportunities. It’s all about balance.

Each of the items highlighted in the 2023 playbook are going to be ongoing topics in coming posts. So, stay tuned!

In the news

Last week was a busy week of interviews for media and publications. My post on the Southwest debacle and what CIOs can learn from it garnered a lot of attention which has led to other conversations about the impact to both CIOs and other enterprise vendors.

Here are a few stories that included my quotes:

• January 6: Southwest Airlines Crisis Exposes 3 Reasons Why Great Companies Stumble (Forbes)
• January 5: Salesforce Customers Not Swayed by Slack, Analysts Say (Wall Street Journal)
• January 3: 2023: The year ahead (Digital CxO)
• January 2: Southwest Meltdown Shows Airlines Need Tighter Software Integration (Wall Street Journal)

As a sidenote, news mentions are always posted on the Media Mentions page on the website.

What’s your take?

There was a lot of great discussion last week on the Southwest Airlines debacle and what we can learn from it. It seems that the incident sparked many CIOs to think about what they can learn from it and how that impacts their efforts in 2023. Hint: Technical Debt should be one of those.

Now it’s your turn. What’s your take? I’d love to hear from you and your perspective.

Be sure to subscribe to the CIO In The Know newsletter and podcast to ensure you do not miss an update.

Originally posted on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cio-know-setting-tone-pace-2023-tim-crawford

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