<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none;" alt="" src="https://px.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=1110556&amp;fmt=gif">
Skip to content
    July 10, 2025

    Ditch the Title: Why Chief Innovator May Be More Important Than CIO

    SPM Mythbusters Series

    3 min read

    Key Takeaways
    • The traditional CIO role is too often associated with legacy systems and maintenance.
    • Organizations need leaders focused on driving innovation. The actual job title doesn't matter.
    • Prioritize forward-thinking individuals who can embrace change and make use of new technology.

    Is it time to retire the title "CIO"?

    It's a bold question, but it's worth asking. Too often, the Chief Information Officer role is linked to the past, not the future.

    The CIO problem: stuck in the past

    The term "Chief Information Officer" brings to mind data centers, help desks, and keeping the systems running. These are important things, of course. However, new ideas are often overlooked or delayed.

    The need for innovation leaders

    That's why we're seeing so many new titles emerge: Chief Technology Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Innovation Officer. There is a reason for this that is linked directly with a person who leads a culture of innovation. If you want to bring ideas and revenue, all you need is the people to be ready.

    The best leaders have all of the goals aligned to a team success, if people don't know what to do then you are at a disadvantage!

    What really matters: mindset and action

    What will really change what’s important with getting results is:

    • Getting someone who’s forward-thinking
    • Who can show to others why something will or will not succeed
    • Show a path forward to be the most innovative

    Stop sticking to old ideas

    It's not a title that drives innovation. It's a way of thinking. It's about empowering leaders to champion new ideas, experiment with new technologies, and challenge the status quo. It's time to prioritize innovation, regardless of what you call the person leading the charge.

    Ditch the outdate name and mindset and you can improve your organization today!

    Jason Kotlinski

    Jason Kotlinski serves as Product Manager for Clarity with clients all across the globe. He is responsible for customer-facing aspects of product management, leading development of key marketable features, and assisting senior management with backlog prioritization and new feature definition.

    Other resources you might be interested in

    icon
    Blog October 1, 2025

    Why 1% Packet Loss Is the New 100% Outage

    In an era of real-time apps and multiple clouds, the old rules about 'acceptable' network errors no longer apply. See why you need end-to-end observability.

    icon
    Office Hours September 30, 2025

    Rally Office Hours: September 25, 2025

    Rally Office Hours delivers an essential product tip: Learn to transition from Legacy Custom Pages to powerful Custom Views. Plus, Q&A insights.

    icon
    Blog September 26, 2025

    Defining the Network Engineer of Tomorrow

    Read this post and see why the most important investment isn't in new hardware, but in transforming your team from device managers to service delivery experts.

    icon
    Blog September 26, 2025

    Harnessing AppNeta’s Browser- and HTTP-based Workflows to Track User Experience

    AppNeta’s browser- and HTTP-based workflows let you see what users actually experience. Preempt issues before they become headaches for your end users.

    icon
    Blog September 26, 2025

    “Rego U” Recap: Why SPM Is Still Hot

    Rego Consulting’s Annual Conference underscored why strategic portfolio management (SPM) is still essential. Leverage SPM to bridge strategy and execution.

    icon
    Blog September 23, 2025

    What's New in AutoSys 24.1: Built for the Modern Automation Landscape

    See how AutoSys 24.1 is designed to streamline your daily tasks, accelerate troubleshooting, and simplify how you integrate with the latest technologies.

    icon
    Office Hours September 23, 2025

    Rally Office Hours: September 18, 2025

    In the latest edition of Rally office hours, learn about changes to the Progress Views widget and then follow the weekly Q&A session with Rally product experts.

    icon
    Video September 23, 2025

    Automic Automation Cloud Integrations: Google Cloud Batch Agent Integration

    See how Broadcom's Google Cloud Batch Automation Agent makes it easy to schedule, queue, and execute batch processing workloads on Google Cloud resources.

    icon
    Blog September 19, 2025

    Why Has Network Management Missed Its Own Revolution?

    Every major IT revolution was powered by the network. It's time for network management it to have its own revolution.