Yes, it's déjà vu: certain topics crop up again and again on IT-related blogs. The age-old question: does a CIO really need to have Information Technology experience? This topic has been dealt with by many people in bits and pieces, touched upon here and there, but it's time for a full column covering the standard arguments posed in this debate. 

Whether you agree or not but all IT projects or IT-led projects today are under severe pressure to prove their worth and provide a quick return on investment. Six months ago we spoke about Maruti Suzuki Training Academy. Now fully functional, the academy at 40% utilization is on course to return the investment in straight eight months. This is called "success assured."  

Why do CIOs sell projects? There's the hypothesis about being proactive and partner to the business, something to do with alignment. Unless there is connect on both sides and endorsement from senior management, the CIO begins to appear desperate while others wonder why.  

In the age of fierce competition, innovation is what drives Meru Cabs. It is innovation that wins us customers. It is an important factor for us to provide better customer service. But ironically innovation cannot be just a one time act. It is to sustain for a longer period of time.departments have to constantly reinvent themselves and be on the edge to improvise and keep the innovation momentum going.  

Traditionally, CIOs were considered to be experts in managing "structured data" - data generated by the ERP and CRM systems and all other systems. Now the proliferation of new devices, mobility and other things is creating data deluge and unstructured data. It is posing tough challenges for the CIOs. What is the solution?  

It's been a dilemma for CIOs whether business is putting burden on IT or is it the opposite. It is actually the push and pull of Business on IT. IT is often seen as a cost center rather than a profit center, especially when the business is making losses. It is discussed and tagged as a burden on business with huge annual expenses. Do you think so? 

What people say doesn't match what they do. People say they value privacy very highly, but then they relinquish personal information in exchange for very small rewards. Time and again our decisions about privacy are quite skewed and malleable. Privacy preferences are hard to measure because they depend upon how questions are framed or contextual factors that shape behavior.  

When it comes to big data, anyone can 'do' big data. Anyone can identify, collect, analyze and use the analysis to run their business. The key to 'doing' big data is to find the context and the tools to make it work for you and your organization. To identify the 'right' data, you've got to understand your data and how your data fits into your business. 

There are five habits of highly secure organizations, according to Ben Rothke of Wyndham Worldwide. These include, among others, investing in people, not products. A company that has great talent using open source products will be more secure than a company that spends millions on proprietary tools but doesn't intrinsically know how to use them.  

While taking part in organizational, board-level politics could be a non-desirable, unnerving task, but understand what all you can miss by not doing it. Most vital decisions are made at the board-level. If you don't stay alongside, where will you have the knowledge, the influence to serve the organization's business with the help of IT? I would vouch for a better future for CIOs if they indulge in this game.