Dear CIONET member, Overviewing the profiles of the twenty-one finalists of the European CIO of the Year award, it becomes clear that the challenges they face and the solutions they developed vary hugely. Nevertheless, in the conclusions they formulate about how to become an effective digital leader, comprised in this report through the advise they provide to their peer CIOs, several common themes emerge. Many finalists express the imperative for today’s ambitious CIO to constantly adapt to the changing environment and to the needs of internal and external customers. Agility is not only an organizational imperative, but also a state of mind, so it seems. As with other things, CIOs need to lead by example. What is also striking is the emphasis many finalists place on skills that were less required in the past. Many finalists stress the importance of communication skills and the ability to collaborate with many different stakeholders. We see this as a clear sign that the CIO is morphing into a business leader who is initiating projects that have an influence that stret ches far beyond their IT organization, into every aspect of their companies and organisations. In fact, they increasingly determine the future of their businesses. This report contains a selection of the accomplishments of the twenty-one finalists. We trust these examples will serve as a source of inspiration and ideas for any digital leader to optimize the performance of their teams, and generate an ever-increasing positive business impact. In that sense this report also exemplifies the role a community like CIONET plays in strengthening the performance of each of its members. By openly sharing real-life experience and insights, each member benefits from the knowledge residing in the community. This is also the reason why CIONET is launching a set of new services to its members. Through peer groups, webinars, opinion papers, as well as off-line conferences and gatherings, we are continually leveraging this collective knowledge and help CIOs to get a huge step closer to realizing their ambition. We wish to congratulate each finalist of the European CIO of the Year award on his or her accomplishments. Each one of them has proven to be a great leader and a motivation example for the many other CIOs in our community. We wish you an interesting reading!
Hendrik Deckers Frederic De Meyer Managing Director Research Director CIONET CIONET
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