How much IT is valued in an organization largely depends on the CIO’s ability to demonstrate it.

One of the topics I am most frequently asked to speak about is the need for CIOs to effectively market the value of IT. Despite its importance, this is a topic that is often treated with a certain degree of disdain by CIOs. First of all, many IT executives are introverts by nature and the thought of marketing and bragging about anything is extremely distasteful. Furthermore, many of us were raised to believe that good work is automatically recognized and that bragging about our accomplishments is gauche. This mindset is very naive.

Often when I present on this topic at a conference, I will play a little game with my audience. First, I mention that marketing is critical to the success of a CIO. This often gets me the proverbial “eyeball roll” from at least 20 percent of the audience. I proceed to ask the following questions:

• “How many of you consider yourself to be experienced at marketing?” Normally, in a room of 200 people, 10 hands might be raised. I then proceed to the next question …
• “How many of you are in long-term committed relationships?” This question usually gets about 80 to 90 percent of the hands raised. Now for the coupe de grâce …
• “So let me ask the first question again: How many of you consider yourself experienced at marketing?”

This usually gets a chuckle from the crowd, but they get my meaning!

I share with the audience that my wife is a beautiful and intelligent woman who could have had her pick of suitors. Of all the people she could have chosen to marry, I convinced her to marry me. If you don’t think marketing played a role in this effort, you are sadly mistaken!

All kidding aside, one of the main reasons that IT executives are uncomfortable with the idea of marketing is because they misinterpret what it is really all about. Many CIOs equate marketing with being a slick “snake oil” salesman. The word conjures up the need for $3,000 suits and “schmoozing” over a bottle of Dom Pérignon at the local steakhouse. This is not my version of marketing.

Follow the Money

To me, marketing is simply educating people about how the money they are investing in you and your IT team is paying dividends. It is explaining the value that your services and efforts bring to topline revenue, lowering bottom-line costs, and finding innovative ways to engage customers in more effective and value-added ways.

For example, at the U.S. Tennis Association where I am CIO, we implemented a consumer-facing website that allows parents of young children to access everything they need to get their kids started playing age- and equipment-appropriate tennis. Any Web-hosting organization could have developed and hosted this content, but knowing what my business was trying to accomplish and understanding the unique calls to action to make this site happen — that’s the value IT added above the technical deployment of a solution.

Your unique understanding of your business, your clients and your processes is what distinguishes you as a valuable internal partner, not just another “everything as a service” cloud or network services provider. At a time when these one-size-fits-all services abound, it’s critical that you prove the ROI on the capital projects you are driving.

And knowing how to target your budget requests will go a long way as well. When I needed funding to strengthen our access-control security solution, for instance, I didn’t ask for a large sum. Instead, I asked for a one-time investment that would allow us to better secure one tournament while at the same time providing a real-time headcount of fans at the event. As a result, we increased ticket sales by about $1.5 million each and every year! I was able to demonstrate that a small, one-time investment of X dollars reaped a return of 8X dollars each year.

The value derived through other parts of your organization is easily understood. The board understands what the sales team is contributing. They know the value of research and development. But how many people intuitively understand the real business value of IT? It’s your job as a CIO to communicate this value proposition and educate this audience. Squander the opportunity at your own risk.

Editors Note: Read more about communications skills in an excerpt from Larry's new book, “Lessons in IT Transformation,” published by John Wiley & Sons. Read the chapter and download here.

Larry is also a member of the Smart Enterprise Exchange and can be contacted on the site.

Consider the standard CIO skill checklist: Lead technology? Of course; check. Take the helm of process transformation? Yes, check. Drive the business forward? Now, that’s where some of us CIOs may hesitate.

Nothing “drives” an organization forward more than new revenue. And it takes a dogged and unyielding determination — best exemplified by entrepreneurs who find, control and manage new money — to lead this type of drive. As a former CIO [at Forbes and W.P. Carey], I believe that CIOs can, and must, drive business change and be entrepreneurial.

Every business that survived the global financial crisis of 2009 wants to grow, recover lost revenue, and retake market share from weaker or failed competition. With CEOs increasingly focused on top-line growth, CIOs can leverage IT as a corporate advantage and help drive strategic change. The IT portfolio now includes not only your organization’s back-end systems and front-end service tools, but those of your customers, and systems and devices employed by their customers.

No one else in the organization is thinking broadly about how to take commercial advantage of the overly complex technology soup in which all industries now operate. Millions of dollars are lost each quarter because of inefficiencies or missed opportunities to help our company’s customers succeed in new and innovative ways. And worst of all, unless we focus on this goal, a competitor will eventually seize the initiative. There are vast opportunities to differentiate oneself not only as a CIO, but as a key business executive. However, to achieve this requires a different mindset than usually employed as CIO: that of the single-minded entrepreneur.

There is a saying that few good ideas survive contact with reality. The successful entrepreneurs I know, however, excel at maneuvering through and around obstacles to ensure that their fledgling idea is realized. They do this by embodying three key behaviors:

1. Great entrepreneurs are also great leaders. They sell a vision and clear purpose for all those around them. They are great listeners, but are decisive; they are knowledgeable without being assuming and bullish without being irrational. As I build my business, Wealth-X, I am increasingly aware of these subtle, yet critical differences.

2. The best entrepreneurs are skilled strategists. They quickly dissect an organization’s assets, competitive landscape, customers and products, and look for ways to make something from nothing. Often, the best ideas are not new at all, but are a repackaging, expansion or bundling of existing offerings to a new or an existing class of customers. Contrary to popular perception, the best entrepreneurs develop this strategic assessment capability by thoughtful study — though I’ve found that some intuition is helpful, too.

3. Only adaptable entrepreneurs survive. They know that no idea is perfect Day One, and that flexible execution is the key to success. Many of the best products, services and companies were nothing like their current form when first launched. Entrepreneurs go to great lengths to seek feedback, and they focus on the shortest path to exploit an opportunity in whatever form it is found.

Being an entrepreneur and creating new revenue from scratch is undoubtedly an uphill battle. But with a bit of gusto, and by embodying entrepreneurial behavior, CIOs can contribute to top-line growth within our current organizations.

Let me know your thoughts ... Mykolas Rambus