Lesson 1

Question 1

CIO

Answer 1

Chief Information Officer

Head of Information Technology (IT); the highest level IT executive or manager in a firm or business unit

Question 2

CIO main role and three main responsibilities

Answer 2

CIO’s main role is aligning business and IT

1. Intellectual alignment (aligning business strategy and IT strategy)
2. IT alignment (aligning IT infrastructure with IT strategy)
3. Operational alignment (aligning IT infrastructure with business infrastructure)

Question 3

Porter’s two generic strategies for Business Strategy

Answer 3

1. Differentiation: products and services with unique features (Ferrari)
2. Cost leadership: lowest average unit cost in the industry (Ford)

Question 4

Miles & Snow’s three generic strategies for Business Strategy

Answer 4

1. Prospector: creates changes in the market (new products/market)
2. Analyzer: follow changes quickly (quickly introduce competitive and new products, occasionally better than prospector)
3. Defender: stable (high-quality but standard products at low prices)

Question 5

Three IS Strategy types according to Sabherwal & Chan

Answer 5

1. IS for efficiency (efficient)
2. IS for flexibility (flexible)
3. IS for comprehensiveness (knowledge)

Question 6

Intellectual alignment

Answer 6

Aligning the business strategy and the IT strategy.

Question 7

IT alignment

Answer 7

Aligning IT strategies with infrastructure and processes.

Question 8

Operational alignment

Answer 8

Aligning IT infrastructure and processes with business infrastructure and processes

Question 9

Challenges for CIO regarding misalignments/misfits

Answer 9

• Process (functionality) misfit
• Data misfit
• Role misfit
• Control misfit
• Organizational culture misfit

Question 10

Strategic Alignment Model (SAM)

Answer 10

Business strategy - IT strategy

Business operation - IT operation