KATHMANDU, INDIA: Addressing  a session on 'What a CIO must avoid' at C- Change 2009, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia India, today asked CIOs to be more proactive in their approach to help people across the board, and especially, to help the CEOs to better understand technologies and their benefits and for implementing new IT strategies.

"If the CEO does not understand technology, it is your job as a CIO to explain it to him. If he is not proactive about the process improvement, business innovation and managing IT assets, it is again, your job as the CIO to ensure that it happens," said Gupta

He added that to manage the slowdown, it is imperative for the CIOs to take risks. "Taking risks is absolutely important in these times of slowdown. Risks are needed that will help get global economies get out of slowdown."

He added that innovative ideas and practices will help lessen the pain of the slowdown.

"What is needed are disruptive technologies and IT has to play a critical role in business strategy. I believe that disruptive technology will come from the manufacturing and IT industries. He called upon the CIOs to use the slowdown to restructure and revitalise the existing IT systems. 

"Consolidate and cut faff. Drive agility across enterprises. Focus on your existing customers which will help to retain more business," he advised.

He said that going forward, IT is now absolutely strategic to every company.

On the changing roles of CIOs  in these tough times, Gupta urged CIOs to be more strategic in their thought process to achieve better results for themselves and over all for the company.

"All C Levels roles are extremely important and CIO is even more important for he sits on the turf of power -- information. If CIOs think their role is a strategic one than a tactical one only, then the end results will be completely different."

"Create your own role. When you start as a C- Level, you need to great at multi-tasking and actually be superman. At C Levels, you are expected to play at a different level in terms of team building and strategising"

Giving his mantras to being successful in tough times, Gupta urged CIOs to demonstrate their vision forcefully across the company and invest in new technologies which can prove very effective for the company in the long run.

"Apart from investing in Green Technologies which is need of the hour, CIOs should seriously look at investing in security technologies for the risks are too huge to be taken for granted and also look at investing in convergence technologies," he added.

Gupta urged CIOs to be always open to learning especially when the things are changing so fast.

"Be a continual learner. No matter how much do you know about industry,  always be open to learn what new benefits existing or new technologies accrue to the enterprise as a whole," he concluded.