Cost reduction is very much a challenge for CIOs today. How do you ensure that year on year you are able to deliver the same services at better productivity rates? This involves doing more with the same set of resources that are available to you. Virtualizing the environment and judiciously managing communication-linked resources can go a long way in controlling costs.  

The role of the CIO has evolved tremendously over the years. Today, I have to also think like a CFO, an HR Head and the CEO several times during the day. I have to change my shoes with their shoes a dozen times and feel how it feels to be in their roles. Unless I do that, I am not in a position to take a top down view of the way the company is moving. 

At a conference I attended, one of the speakers observed that venture capitalists (VCs) are rejecting any and all business plans that include capital spending for IT. Their rationale is all about focus and flexibility. "Pay as you go" IT (enabled through cloud services such as software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and infrastructure-as-a-service) free management to focus on the product, not the plumbing.... 

Staff performance should be evaluated in various categories that align with your company's vision and goals. Depending on the needs of the business, one or more categories may be focused on for improvement. Performance should be evaluated against the goals using the performance metrics agreed to at the beginning of the review period. 

What should be a CIO's top priority - cost or quality? A very profound question with an equally profound answer - depends! To say that either cost or quality is always the first priority would be incorrect. Cost is always a consideration, especially in the case of companies in the social domain, whose target segment is the poorest of the poor and the objective is to ensure maximum returns.