The new year is always a pivotal moment for IT leaders. As a CIO, I spent years grappling with the challenges of thin budgets and high expectations – in short, I've seen how the structure of IT teams can adapt under pressure. A growing trend is the shift toward leaner, more agile teams responding to economic turbulence, technological upheaval, and relentless demands for efficiency.
While lean might initially feel like a threat, it is really an opportunity to rethink strategy, ignite innovation, and push our teams to new heights.
CIOs regularly face unexpected budget reductions, which punch the departmental vision in the gut. At first, it can be easy to feel a sense of panic but after stepping back, we must ask ourselves, "How can we do more with less?" I get it – CIOs quickly get sick of hearing the words 'efficiency', 'effectiveness', and 'creativity' regarding budgets and IT department offerings. But whether a CIO appreciates such expectations is irrelevant.
A more positive perspective is a shift in mindset, sparking a wave of innovation across the team. Allowing your team to streamline processes by leaning heavily on automation and discovering previously maintained priorities is possible. The result? Not only did I meet budgetary goals, but I also emerged as more assertive and confident.
Fast-forward to the new year and this same mindset is more critical than ever. CIOs today have to balance shrinking headcounts with growing expectations, and the good news is that it's possible to do more with less if you embrace the right strategies.
The economic reality and agility
In today's economic climate, most organizations are reluctant to increase headcount unnecessarily. Businesses expect IT teams to maximize their existing resources, and CIOs examine the budget, including every tool, subscription, and role.
I'll never forget a particularly intense budget review meeting with a CFO, who bluntly said "We need to justify every dollar spent". Although it was a gruelling meeting, it forced us to identify waste and focus on what mattered. In the long run, this sometimes painful process made us sharper, more strategic, and more aligned with the company's goals.
AI and automation are reshaping the workforce faster than we imagined. Intelligent systems now handle repetitive tasks that once required large teams harnessing technology to maintain productivity while freeing up talent for more strategic roles.
The team's initial reaction was resistance when introducing my first automation and AI-driven service desk solution. The common refrain was, "How can a bot do my job?". Once team members saw the system in action, efficiently handling mundane queries, attitudes shifted with the realization that they had more time to focus on solving complex problems and driving innovation. This experience taught me a critical lesson: automation isn't about replacing people but empowering them to do their best work.
CIOs constantly defend the budget, yet sometimes an organization's economic realities take priority over the department's wants and needs. It's in these moments that agility becomes a top priority. Making your teams more agile may require more than just addressing any IT skills shortages. It's about creating a culture where collaboration and efficiency thrive, cutting through the noise and panic of budget reduction and focusing on business outcomes.
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One change I made over my years as CIO was reducing the number of meetings. I reduced our ninety-minute weekly status meetings to 15-minute daily standups and implemented a real-time project management tool instead. The result? Employees began to focus on their current projects and any assistance they needed during meetings, rather than listing what they already completed.
Less time spent talking about work means more time spent doing it – and collaborating to complete a task. It sounds simple, but the impact was profound. People felt more focused, less bogged down, and far more productive.
Reducing bureaucracy in this way allows teams to make better decisions, leading to better outcomes. Community, shared team values, and trust evolve amongst teams if they're given room to grow and this could make all the difference in 2025.
Key Strategies for 2025
With a new year comes new strategies for CIOs:
- AI and automation: Leverage technology like AI and generative AI to automate those monotonous tasks and empower your team to focus on what truly matters—innovative and high-impact work. In my previous role, the time savings were astonishing when we automated routine maintenance tasks. Suddenly, engineers bogged down in day-to-day operations could focus on projects that drove real productivity.
- Invest in talent development: Upskilling your team is no longer an admirable goal for the year, but a must have. Try introducing weekly "learning hours", where employees can explore new skills or work on passion projects. Talent development isn't just about training, as it also creates a curiosity and continuous improvement culture.
- Foster a culture of innovation: CIOs should encourage the team to take risks and try new things. The junior developer the CIO hired a year ago who wants to experiment with AI-powered data analytics tools to improve sales by 20% should be encouraged and may revolutionize how your company approaches the sales process.
- Alignment or bust: Move IT into a strategic partner, not just a back-office function. Aligning the IT roadmap with sales and finance objectives transforms how the company views the IT department. The automation created through dedicated talent development passion projects should align with the aim of other department roadblocks, process improvement, or audacious goals. Suddenly, the CIO isn't leading just the 'tech team.' The CIO and IT department become a key driver of business success.
While shrinking workforces may limit services offered, there's ample opportunity to use necessary changes as opportunities to think differently and innovate. CIOs who can embrace the new by leveraging technology, investing in talent, and using constraints to drive creative thinking can drive major growth and success in the new year.
So, here's to 2025 – a year to achieve more with fewer resources and do better than ever.
