Repositioning your IT department as a business partner

By Cyril JOUAN

Cyril is a CIO, Director of Digital Transformation, and a member of the Executive Committee (COMEX) at the mid-sized company Ecosystem. An experienced IT leader and SAP specialist, he has over 25 years of experience leading complex transformations across organizations ranging from SMEs to Fortune 100 companies. A former Executive Partner at Gartner and Partner at Hubadviser, he advises executive committees and CIOs on governance, IT performance, strategic prioritization, and AI adoption. He is also President of CJOCoaching, a certified coach, and an NLP Master Practitioner.

The 2 pillars to transform the perception of your IT department in 6 months

By Hubadviser – exclusive interview

INTRODUCTION

90% of the conversations I have with CIOs end up in the same place. Not on tech. Not on budgets. On internal politics. How can I gain more influence at the executive committee level? How can I finally be seen as a business contributor, not just a risk manager? How can I change my relationship with my CEO? If these questions resonate with you, you are not alone. And you are not complaining, you are clearly seeing what is holding you back.

I am Cyril Jouan. 25 years as a CIO in radically different environments: industry, startups, retail, SMEs, Fortune 100. Then several years as an Executive Partner at Gartner, supporting around fifty CIOs on their strategy and internal positioning.

What have I seen everywhere, without exception? Competent CIOs struggling to operate at the right level. Not due to lack of talent, but due to lack of political visibility.

That’s exactly what we’re going to work on here. Two pillars: reassess, then reposition. Concrete actions, field-tested tips, pitfalls to avoid. And for each action, a deliberate political dimension, because that’s where everything truly happens. Adopt this framework, and you will change the place of your IT department within the organization.

Pillar 1: Reassess (months 1–3)

“You cannot change a perception without first understanding how it was built”

Action 1: Re-decode power dynamics with a fresh perspective

You know the org chart. You know the people. But do you really know the power map as it exists today? Alliances shift. Power dynamics evolve. A director who was your ally two years ago may have changed priorities.

The classic mistake of an established CIO: believing political dynamics are fixed because they were once understood. Rebuild your map from scratch:

Are your initial sponsors still truly there?
Who is slowing down your initiatives behind the scenes, and what are they protecting?
New executive committee members: have you proactively briefed them on what IT does, or are you waiting for them to come to you?
Within business teams, power dynamics have shifted. Who has gained influence? Have you repositioned accordingly?

Method: Organize one-on-one lunches with each executive committee member, even those you think you know well. Ask them a simple question: “If you had to describe the role of IT to someone external, what would you say?” Their answer will reveal the real perception they have of your department.

💡 Tip: Do the same exercise with second-level managers, not just the executive committee. This is often where the most honest perceptions and frustrations emerge.

Action 2: Conduct a perception audit of your IT department

Before trying to change your positioning, take a snapshot of the situation. You cannot improve what you do not measure.

What you need to assess:

If your executive committee had to rate you today, what score would they give, and based on what criteria?
Do business teams see you as an accelerator or a bottleneck?
Does your CEO truly trust you, or are they managing IT around you without telling you?
Is your seat at the executive committee secured, or simply tolerated?

Method: Ask your CEO for structured feedback. Not informally, schedule a dedicated time slot and ask precise questions:

“In which areas do you believe IT has delivered well over the past 12 months?”
“On which topics would you like me to be involved earlier?”
“How would you describe the role of IT in our 3-year strategy?”

💡 Tip: Complement this internal audit with an external benchmark. Reach out to 2 or 3 CIO peers in comparable companies and compare your positioning. This will give you concrete arguments for your executive committee.

⚠️ Warning: If your CEO says “everything is fine” without going into detail, it is a red flag. It often means they lack visibility on what you do, which can be worse than direct criticism.

Action 3: Map your quick wins and blind spots

You know your IT landscape. But do you know it from a “perceived business value” perspective? This is where most CIOs have a blind spot.

Rework your mapping using a different framework:

Actual impact vs perceived impact: Identify 3 to 5 initiatives that had measurable impact over the past 18 months. Who knows about them outside of IT?
Chronic irritants: What are the 3 topics that keep coming up in executive meetings or informal discussions?
Available quick wins: What concrete problems could you solve in 4 to 6 weeks with visible impact?
Unaddressed strategic topics: AI, data, cybersecurity, do you have a clear, consistent position, or does it change depending on who you are speaking to?

Method: Identify 3 high-visibility quick wins that you can deliver within 8 weeks. These are your concrete proofs of value.

💡 Tip: Choose quick wins that directly impact the daily work of the executive committee or key business teams. A dashboard for the CEO, an automation that saves the CFO 2 hours per week, or a visible improvement on a tool used by sales teams. Perceived impact matters more than technical complexity.

⚠️ Warning: Resist the temptation to launch a “large transformation program”. That is exactly what reinforces the perception of slow and costly IT. Start with fast and visible wins.

Action 4: Assess your real maturity with an external perspective

You have been in your role for a long time. You know your IT better than anyone. And that is exactly the problem.

This is not a criticism, it is neuroscience. The more immersed you are in a system, the more your brain automatically fills the gaps. You no longer see certain flaws because you have adapted to them. You have integrated them as constants, not as problems. An external perspective does not have that memory. It sees what you no longer notice.

That is why an external audit is not a sign of weakness. It is a management tool.

Step 1: Frame the audit so it is useful, not decorative

Not a 200k€ exhaustive audit producing a 300-page report that no one reads. A 3 to 5-week flash diagnostic, focused on 3 specific areas:

Cybersecurity: Is your security posture truly up to date? An incident is what turns an ignored weakness into a public crisis and personal accountability.
Governance: Are your IT decision-making processes clear and respected by business teams, or bypassed whenever possible?
Delivered value: Can you demonstrate, with data, what IT has concretely contributed to the business over the past 12 months?

Who should you appoint? Avoid large generalist consulting firms for this type of mission, you will mostly pay for their brand. Turn instead to specialized firms (cyber, IT governance) or senior independent consultants, former CIOs themselves, who understand the operational reality of mid-sized companies.

A reasonable budget for this type of flash diagnostic ranges from €15,000 to €40,000, depending on the size of your IT landscape and the number of areas covered. This is the cost of an informed decision, not just a report.

Step 2: Get approval from your CEO without signaling weakness

This is where many CIOs fail. They present the audit as a defensive necessity or worse, as self-criticism. Both approaches signal uncertainty. The right approach is to position the audit as an offensive lever.

“We are entering a transformation phase. Before committing additional resources, I want an objective view of our starting point, not mine, an external one. It will give us stronger arguments for upcoming budget decisions.”

You are not asking permission to check if everything is fine. You are proposing a strategic management tool for the executive committee.

Step 3: Use the results as a political lever

Compare the audit conclusions with how your IT department is perceived by the executive committee. The gap between the two, in either direction, becomes your working material.

An external audit gives legitimacy that your own voice cannot achieve. It is no longer “the CIO asking”, it is “an external diagnosis recommending”. For budget or resource requests, the difference is significant.

💡 Tip: Present the results in 15 minutes, not 2 hours. 3 slides: findings, risks, recommendations with associated budget. Decision-makers remember what is short and impactful.

⚠️ Warning: If the audit reveals issues you were already aware of but did not escalate, own it. It is a moment of truth. It is better to be the one leading the diagnosis than the one subjected to it.

Checkpoint month 3: Are you ready to step up?

These first 3 months have laid the foundations. Before going further, ask yourself these 4 questions honestly:

Do I really know how my IT department is perceived at the executive committee level? Not what people politely told me, but what decisions, budgets, and behaviors actually reveal.
Do I have an objective measure of my IT maturity? Not my own, inevitably biased view, but an external perspective on cybersecurity, governance, and the value delivered to the business.
Have I identified my 3 quick wins for the next 8 weeks? Concrete, visible, measurable. Wins that tell a new story about my IT department.
Do I know my sponsors and my resistance forces? Who will support this repositioning with me? Who will slow it down, consciously or not?

If you do not have these answers, do not move to Pillar 2. Restart the perception audit, or get support.

Pillar 2: Reposition (months 4–6)

“An IT department without a strategic narrative is one that is controlled by others”….

Want to learn more?

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