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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteIn a 2020 interview, Penelope Prett, then Accenture’s CIO, argued that technology leaders must do more than keep systems reliable: they should show how technology can transform the business. Her practical lessons were to tell a persuasive story about change, give small teams room to act within clear risk limits, protect essential systems while exploring new technology, and stay curious and human in how they lead.
What did Penelope Prett say a CIO’s job is?
Prett’s 2020 interview with CIO described reliable operations as the baseline, not the whole job. She said a CIO should also make technology’s transformative potential visible inside the company, demonstrating the kind of change the business offers its clients.
She was speaking as Accenture’s CIO in 2020. The figures she gave then—95 percent public cloud, 500,000 people served, 1,200 applications, and 10,000 people moving in and out of her organization annually—describe the scale she cited in that interview, not Accenture’s current operating metrics.
How can a CIO persuade people to support change?
Prett named storytelling as one of two essential leadership skills. Her point was especially relevant to ideas without an established market comparison: people need to understand not only what is being proposed, but why it matters and where it could lead. “Storytelling is at the heart of driving change, especially with ideas that are unproven, because there is no market analog,” she said in the edited 2020 interview.
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A story should make a sound case easier to understand, not substitute for one. In practice, connect the proposed technology to a business problem, explain the intended outcome, and make clear what people will need to do differently. That gives colleagues a reason to engage with an unfamiliar idea without pretending its risks or uncertainties do not exist.
How should leaders empower teams without putting the business at risk?
Prett recommended forming small teams quickly and giving them authority to solve problems. Her boundary was a “breakage threshold”: risks below a clearly understood limit could be handled by the team, while issues that could threaten the business warranted her involvement. She put the principle plainly: “My advice is to tolerate failure, but set that tolerance at a level that doesn’t put your business at risk.”
For a CIO applying that idea, the threshold has to be explicit enough that people can act without guessing. Define which outcomes are unacceptable, what must be escalated, and who has authority to make decisions within the safe zone. Autonomy can speed up work; an understood escalation boundary helps preserve control over consequential risks.
How can CIOs balance innovation with reliable core systems?
Prett urged senior leaders to stay flexible and move toward new technologies while protecting the systems the business depends on. That is not a choice between experimentation and reliability. It is a way to make room for both: explore new capabilities with teams suited to move quickly, while keeping essential services and their risks in view.
Rank #3
- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
Her advice to build small, empowered teams fits that balance. The organization can test unfamiliar approaches without treating every experiment as a change to the core. The exact controls will depend on the business, but the leadership distinction is clear: encourage movement toward the new without losing responsibility for continuity.
What skills and habits did Prett value in leaders?
Stay intellectually curious
Prett advised future CIOs to keep learning and form informed views about emerging technologies, even though no one can master everything. “First, always train yourself to be relentlessly intellectually curious,” she said. For a senior leader, curiosity is not the same as chasing every trend; it is a habit of asking what a technology might change and what evidence would make it relevant to the business.
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Help people articulate their value
She also described personal brand as a clear account of the value a person uniquely brings, rather than a bid for fame or attention. A leader can help colleagues identify and express that contribution, supporting confidence and development without reducing leadership to self-promotion.
Make room for human relationships
Prett said the COVID-19 period had underscored the importance of human connection: “COVID has taught us to be truly human.” She argued that more personal interactions with colleagues and business sponsors improved the quality of her working relationships. The leadership lesson is to make time for genuine contact, not to treat every conversation as a transaction.
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What can a new CIO add to these lessons?
Accenture’s separate 2023 guidance for new CIOs extends the leadership ideas into an initial operating agenda. It recommends learning what stakeholders expect, understanding customer experience and leadership priorities, and speaking about technology in the business’s language of financial and other value. These are later Accenture recommendations, not statements from Prett’s 2020 interview.
- Listen to stakeholders: Find out what business leaders and customers need before deciding which technology problems to prioritize.
- Connect technology to value: Frame proposals in terms business and finance colleagues can assess, not only technical activity.
- Assess the foundations: Understand the enterprise architecture and the organization’s talent and capability needs.
- Choose an early project carefully: Identify a project with immediate business value that can build confidence in the technology function.
Accenture’s 2023 technology-value report adds a measurement discipline: business, technology, and finance teams should share an understanding of how technology value is set, measured, and delivered. It discusses cost visibility, FinOps, SaaS procurement, ongoing architecture rationalization, and shorter funding cycles as possible management tactics. Those recommendations complement Prett’s emphasis on transformation by asking leaders to show whether technology investment is producing business value.
Accenture reported in 2023 that 86% of companies had increased the scope of their cloud initiatives over the prior two years, while 42% said they were fully achieving expected outcomes. These are figures Accenture reported from an underlying source, not independently verified survey results; they point to a useful management question rather than a current measure of Accenture’s own cloud operations: how will the organization know whether a larger technology effort is delivering what it promised?
Who is Accenture’s CIO now?
The interview is about Penelope Prett’s experience as Accenture’s CIO in 2020, not the company’s current leadership. Accenture’s executive leadership listing identifies Tony Leraris as Chief Information Officer. The listing establishes his role as displayed there, but not his appointment date.
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