What are the 9 levers for boosting CIO performance in an uncertain environment?

The CIO operates in an increasingly uncertain environment : budgetary pressures, a shortage of IT talent, heightened demands for Cybersecurity and accelerating digital transformations. Yet only a minority of CIOs have a formal communications strategy. In this context, knowing how to promote your choices, constraints and strategic contribution becomes essential to preserve your legitimacy, defend your Budgets and reinforce the confidence of your stakeholders.

Today’s Information Systems Department(CIO) operates in an increasingly uncertain economic, technological and organizational environment. Faster digital transformation cycles, budgetary pressures, shortages of IT skills, growing demands in terms of Cybersecurity and regulatory compliance: the CIO is under constant pressure.

In this context, its posture or performance may be called into question, its legitimacy challenged, and its visibility with the business lines or Comex may be blurred.

The 2025 Barometer of IT department steering maturity (Abraxio) reveals that only a minority of CIOs (22%) have a formal communication and marketing strategy, even though the complexity of the issues at stake calls for a structured, audible and proactive voice.

In times of uncertainty, the CIO must do more than just deliver operational performance: it must also be able to communicate its value, its trade-offs, its constraints, and its strategic contribution to the business. This means addressing each stakeholder differently – in-house Teams, business departments/in-house customers, COMEX, external partners – with targeted messages, supported by adapted formats (Dashboards, roadmaps, Projects stories, feedback…).

More than ever, controlled communication enables the CIO to defend its choices, preserve its room for maneuver and, in particular, its Budgets, nurture trust and avoid isolation in tense phases.

What do we mean by CIO marketing and communications?

CIO marketing and communication refers to all actions aimed at enhancing the value of the CIO’s activities, making them visible and understandable to its various stakeholders, and there are many of them: internal CIO staff, business departments, Comex, end-users within the company, external partners, applicants…

It’s not a question of “selling” the CIO as a brand (although some of the most mature CIOs have gone that far, with very positive results), but of translating its strategy, priorities, services and successes in a clear, accessible and engaging way.

This is achieved through a variety of media (Service catalogs, roadmaps, Dashboards, feedback) and narrative formats (testimonials, use cases, storytelling), but also through a relational posture: making the CIO a proactive, listening player, aligned with the company’s strategic and business challenges. It’s a lever for legitimacy, influence and organizational performance.

Not all levers need to be activated at the same time. It’s all about prioritizing: diagnosing how the CIO is perceived by each stakeholder, identifying the critical expectations of each stakeholder, and building a marketing and communication action plan aligned with the organization’s overall context and strategy.

In this context, communication must become a reflex, a continuous process, an integral part of the business. It enables the CIO to consolidate its position in an unstable ecosystem, to embody the meaning of its mission, and to continue to play its driving role in digital innovation.

In an uncertain context, which levers should be activated first? Here are the answers.

1. Asserting the CIO’s strategic role through communication

In a context of increasing pressure on Budgets, the CIO must more than ever combat the image of a technical service desk that is still “too expensive”.

On the contrary, it needs to assert its strategic positioning within the organization, and provide a clear value proposition to business departments and senior management. However, according to Talisker, which carried out a comprehensive study on the subject in 2024, while 85% of CIOs take into account the expectations of their internal customers when defining their positioning, only 62% are truly aligned with the company’s strategic priorities.

This positioning needs to be worked out, formalized and shared: what role does the CIO play in digital transformation? What concrete benefits does it generate for the organization? What processes, tools or trade-offs does it help to optimize?

The challenge is twofold: to change the image of a cost pool into a value-creating player, and to build communication based on tangible evidence – return on investment, performance KPIs, business gains. By presenting the results obtained in a structured and regular way, the CIO can lend credibility to its actions and strengthen its place in the organization’s strategic choices.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• Work on and formulate the CIO’s value proposition: define the pillars of its contribution to the company’s strategy (operational efficiency, innovation, security, compliance…) and formulate them in a clear message, shared within the CIO, the organization and externally.
• Implement value-oriented reporting: create a Dashboard showing the concrete benefits of IT projects for the business (productivity, avoided costs, user satisfaction, time-to-market…), and share it regularly with senior management.
• Build a communication plan around business impacts: identify the most significant Projects, quantify the results obtained, and use them as internal communication tools (infographics, quarterly reviews, business presentations), to anchor the CIO in a business performance logic.

2. Communicating strategy: making the roadmap readable and engaging

A CIO with no visible vision or direction is perceived as an executor. And yet, according to the Abraxio 2025 Barometer, only 39% of CIOs share their roadmap with anyone other than the management committee. The result: misunderstandings about trade-offs, misperceptions about priorities, and sometimes a lack of support for the most structuring Projects.

Sharing a roadmap does not mean publishing a technical schedule. It’s about translating IS strategy into a business language accessible to all, making priorities clear, andinvolving stakeholders in the trajectory. In an uncertain context, visibility of the Roadmap becomes a confidence-building factor for stakeholders.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• Build a “general public” version of the CIO roadmap, focusing on expected results rather than technical milestones, using a visual format (infographic, timeline).
• Organize quarterly Roadmap presentations, highlighting the links between IS projects and business challenges.
• Share a Dashboard, accessible to all, to track the progress of major initiatives as well as “run” activity according to cross-analytical axes, correlated with the organization’s strategic axes.

3. Involve the professions: make communication a collaborative process

CIO communications must not remain an internal affair. As part of a co-construction approach, involving the business units in decisions and messages reinforces the CIO’s legitimacy. According to Talisker, CIOs who systematically involve the operational departments in their communication initiatives report +32% active collaboration on IT Projects.

By involving users in the choices, priorities and storytelling of Projects, the CIO moves away from a top-down model to become a cross-functional player, co-steering the transformations. This creates a mirror effect: the more the CIO breaks down silos and gives the business a voice, the more it is listened to in return.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• Set up a “business ambassador committee”, made up of internal referents who take part in communication choices, test messages and relay information to their departments.
• Co-host Projects presentations or product communications with customer representatives, to convey a unified message and promote cooperation.
• Organize workshops at the end of Projects, enabling the business units and CIO to draw up a joint summary of the results achieved.

4. Capitalize on success: turn successful Projects into vectors of recognition

In many organizations, the completion of IT Projects – and therefore their successes – goes unnoticed. The pace is such that one project chases another, and we don’t take the time to mark, if not celebrate, project endings.

And yet, in an environment where the CIO can sometimes be perceived as “expensive” or “reactive”, capitalizing on successes is an essential lever for changing this image. The Talisker study reveals that 58% of CIOs do not formalize communication around completed Projects, even though these stories are the most credible in the eyes of the business.

The aim here is to transform operational achievements into testimonials of value, concrete use cases and evidence for stakeholders, particularly senior management. By communicating business gains, user feedback and lessons learned, the CIO builds an ongoing narrative of its contribution.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• Document each completed Project as an internal “success story”, with a visual summary (benefits, KPIs, user feedback).
• Involve business sponsors in cross-interviews (CIO + internal customer), to give a credible voice to joint success.
• Celebrate the end of Projects with CIO Teams and stakeholders.

5. Define and promote the CIO’s Service catalog

In the current economic climate, where public and private sector organizations have to reconcile cost reduction without cutting back on innovation and transformation, the Service catalog, which formalizes what the CIO can offer the company, is becoming a strategic lever. It clarifies the offering, reinforces legitimacy, facilitates budgetary dialogue with the business and finance departments, and enhances the value of high value-added services. More than just a document, it’s a steering and communication tool that positions the CIO as a professional, responsible player aligned with business priorities.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• Clearly define each service with a description, access conditions and associated commitments (cost, SLA, service levels) to highlight the value provided (vs. an overly technical “IT support” posture).
• Regularly update the catalog to reflect changes in the offering.
• Take care with the Service catalog and its distribution via channels accessible to all users, such as the corporate Intranet. This helps to raise the CIO’s sometimes battered image to one of quality, ambition and rigor.

6. Strengthen CIO cohesion and transparency

In uncertain times, internal communication within the CIO is key, as is the way in which the CIO communicates and informs all company employees about its actions.

Today, even more than in the past, transparency is the CIO’s watchword: explaining what is being done, how the Budgets are being used, how Resources are being consumed, etc.

Complementing this, the development of communication is essential to federate Teams around common objectives, all the more so when the outlook deteriorates. Being transparent, without being alarmist, fosters team solidarity, better understanding of decisions taken, alignment and buy-in.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• Create graphical representations of CIO activities to help educate people about what we do: an iceberg to show that 70 or 80% of the budget is spent on run activities, a treemap to visualize the breakdown of the Projects portfolio, etc.
• Organize regular meetings to encourage exchanges and gather feedback.
• Use collaborative tools to facilitate communication between Teams.

7. Recruiting and retaining talent: establishing the CIO as a credible technology employer

Against a backdrop of pressure on digital skills, CIOs are faced with a twofold urgency: to attract skilled talent and retain existing employees. HR marketing applied to the CIO thus becomes an imperative. And this at a time when the most sought-after IT profiles are in a position of strength: they choose their company as much, if not more, than the other way around.

Highlighting the work environment, stimulating technological Projects, or team values becomes a powerful differentiating lever. External communication (LinkedIn, trade shows, career site) and internal communication (testimonials, onboarding, career paths) are therefore key retention and recruitment tools in an ultra-competitive market.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• Work closely with the Human Resources Department (DRH) to highlight the CIO’s HR advantages over other organizations: careers, mobility, culture, working conditions, etc. Given the tightness of the recruitment market, CIOs are sometimes treated as “outsiders”.
• Highlight employees in video portraits or interviews, broadcast internally or on LinkedIn, to embody expertise, diversity of profiles and expertise, and team culture.
• Formalize a personalized integration and development path for each new talent (mentoring, training, certifications), then communicate it to potential candidates.

8. Develop personal branding for CIOs and their managers

Personal branding is all about promoting the Skills and achievements of CIO members. In a tense environment, good personal branding of the CIO and his or her key managers helps to ensure the CIO’s existence and commitment to the company.

Closely linked to the question of leadership, personal branding is doubly positive, since its external resonance has a positive impact internally. The result: a CIO who “plays the communication game”, who “gets out there”, who commits himself, makes himself visible and reinforces his weight within the company and his influence on decision-making.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• As a CIO or Teams Manager, regularly share your expertise and successes on Linkedin, and even company news. Vary the ways you express yourself: personal publications, content curation and reposting, comments on posts relevant to your activity.
• Organize internal events to showcase CIO talent (conferences, webinars, roundtables), and feature them in the company’s internal communications media.
• Don’t hesitate to speak out in the specialized media, or to take part in events organized by CIO clubs or partners (roundtables, webinars, etc.). By raising the profile of the CIO or his or her spokespersons, this type of action fosters pride in belonging to the Teams, and contributes to the CIO’s reputation both internally and externally.

9. Anticipate and react effectively in the event of a crisis

CIOs are no strangers to crisis management, particularly when it comes to Business continuity plans (BCP) and disaster recovery plans (DRP).

However, the communication dimension of these plans is still too often neglected. A crisis – cyber attack, major breakdown, data leakage, etc. – can occur at any time, regardless of the economic context. – can occur at any time, regardless of the economic context. And without a well-prepared communication strategy, the consequences can be multiplied: loss of confidence, business disruption, damage to the reputation of the CIO, or even the company.

It is essential to distinguish crisis communication (an exceptional situation requiring rapid mobilization, controlled messages and secure channels) from incident communication, which is more commonplace, but just as strategic in the long term. An unavailable application, a prolonged slowdown or repeated bugs can alter the CIO’s perception of reliability, especially if communication is absent or poorly managed. In both cases, the CIO’s credibility is at stake, and preparation is the best defense.

✅ Three concrete actions to implement

• Formalize a crisis communication strategy: identify different typical scenarios (cyber-attack, critical service breakdown, RGPD incident…), plan key messages, roles of each person, alternative channels in case of unavailability of usual tools (messaging, intranet, etc.).
• Treat incident communication as an image issue: standardize clear, transparent and reassuring messages in the event of malfunctions, set up a follow-up process and provide regular information to the users concerned.
• Test and train Teams on a regular basis: organize crisis simulation exercises, including communications, and train key staff (CIOs, Project Managers, Support Managers) on how to deal with users, senior management and external partners.

Conclusion

Marketing and communication are not options for the CIO: they are the levers that structure its legitimacy, its ability to influence, and its contribution to corporate strategy. If this approach is essential in stable times, it becomes vital in times of tension. When Resources are scarce, trade-offs are tougher and priorities are contested, the CIO can’t just keep a low profile.

It needs to assert its value proposition, demonstrate its contribution to business challenges and reinforce the confidence of all its stakeholders. In other words, it must not suffer the context, but seize it to strengthen its positioning.

By wisely activating the various levers developed in this article – internal visibility, promotion of successes, involvement of the business lines, employer image, etc. – the CIO is giving itself the means to no longer be perceived as a cost pool, but as a strategic, credible and essential player in the value chain.