The words loomed large on the screen in the presentation theatre. “Is the role of the CIO dead?” It’s one of those awkward questions that always splits opinion, provokes debate, and―if you happen to be a CIO―makes you put down your BlackBerry and listen. After all, the Cloud is either the last nail in the coffin for the CIO as we know it – or it is a great opportunity to transform the way services and value are provided to the business. Others see a renaissance of sorts for the role of the CIO as industry comes out of the recession and CIOs are needed to help drive new growth for their respective organisations.

And then it happened. While sitting among the 25 or so C-level executives from public and private U.K. companies in the presentation, Bannister had a brainwave. Of course, the CIO isn’t finished as an entity, I thought. He or she just needs to adapt: to be an innovator; stimulating new ideas that keep the business one step ahead. Let’s face it, until now, the CIO has been very much focused on the supply of IT, steadily being pushed by the business to develop enterprise resource planning systems, complex algorithmic databases, or other highly technical solutions. Solutions that were all too often years in the making.

However, this is getting a lot, lot harder because of the Cloud. The business wants services now, they want them cheaply―and if the CIO can’t deliver, they’ll call the nearest managed service provider and order an on demand Cloud service on their credit card. This widely-discussed ‘consumerisation of IT’ means the CIO needs to switch away from supplying IT solutions. Instead, they need to create demand: innovating new services the business needs. Where the CIO used to be pulled by the business, now he or she will be pushed by it.

Take RFID, for example. A few years ago it was the poster child of IT; it briefly shone brightly but was hampered by cost, complexity, and drawn out implementation cycles. Now it’s back on the radar; the technology has evolved, the price point has come down, and firms are hungry to snap it up to streamline their supply chain. It’s the same with related retailing innovations self-service kiosks, intelligent shelf-edge labels, or a host of other emerging ideas. The CIO needs to be the powerhouse for these ideas, continually pumping them out through the business.

To some extent, the CIO role will merge with that of the COO. Both will become responsible for IT and business processes; both will innovate. The difference right now is that one reports to the board, while the other typically reports to finance. Only when the CIO begins reporting to the board, will he or she be perceived as an enabler. Not an overhead.