There's a thought-provoking article in the Jan. 11 Wall St. Journal entitled "Your BlackBerry or Your Wife." The story focuses on the problems that are inherent with device addiction - when people have trouble separating themselves from their iPods, BlackBerries, laptops, etc.

The article points to real-life examples of families that are connected electronically - and yet disconnected from one another. To help break some families' digital dependence, some parents have imposed week-long bans on all electronic gadgets with the exception of work and homework. No TV, no DVDs, no email, no texting, no videogames, etc. You get the idea.

 

Now that the economic recovery finally seems to be gaining strength, many CIOs and C-level executives will be focusing a lot of attention around growing the business and acquiring new customers. And rightly so. With consumer confidence on the rise, individuals and businesses will be spending more freely, creating new opportunities for companies to establish new revenue streams.

But there's another area for business improvement in 2011 that CIOs and business leaders should examine more closely which has historically been overlooked: customer loyalty.

 

As we examine this question, it's important to recognize how the roles of both the CTO and the CIO are changing.

In many enterprise organizations, CTOs are responsible for setting technology strategies and establishing standards while ensuring that technology that's used by the business adheres to those criteria. Meanwhile, CIOs are accountable for working with business and functional leaders to set business strategy and to make sure that the IT organization is aligned in meeting the needs and expectations of the business.

Charlie Feld's been around IT for a long time-44 years to be exact, starting at IBM in 1966. He was the CIO of Frito-Lay in the 1980s and started his consultancy, the Feld Group, in 1992 (purchased in 2004 by EDS, became part of HP in 2008, and is now independent again). After his stint at Frito-Lay he became known for a framework for IT-enabled business transformation that he created while there.

 

Now he has a new book, "Blind Spot: A Leader's Guide to IT-Enabled Business Transformation ," that updates that framework to deal with the issues that IT and business leaders are grappling with today. In an interview with strategy + business released last week, Feld talks about the book, what he's learned and the ideas he now espouses.

 

I read an interesting blog about how the emergence of cloud computing may result in a wide range of new titles and responsibilities. I'll touch on some of those that were listed and include a few that I see emerging as well.

One such role/title that's cropped up is CTO of Cloud Computing, a designation that's held by Lewis Tucker at Cisco, according to a recent Fortune article. Tucker describes his role as one where he has "to make sure that (cloud) disruption happens in a very positive way - that we can use it as an opportunity."

 

China is on pace to become the world's most important source for innovation by 2020, overtaking both the U.S. and Japan, according to a public opinion survey conducted by drugmaker AstraZeneca that will be released next week.

According to the survey results, which were pre-released earlier this week, the U.S. is currently viewed as the world's most innovative country, according to 30 percent of the 6,000 people who were polled, followed by Japan with 25 percent and China at 14 percent.