Connecting technology to business goals takes more than changing who reports to whom. CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, and business leaders need to shape strategy together, make technology choices part of business and operating-model design, and hold initiatives accountable for outcomes such as customer value, growth, efficiency, and risk reduction.
Why the technology–business connection matters
Technology increasingly affects how companies compete, serve customers, and manage risk. In PwC’s US Pulse Survey, fielded May 15–22, 2024 among 673 executives and board members at Fortune 1000 and private companies, 73% of CIOs and 74% of all executives surveyed cited technology disruption as a top business risk. In the same survey, 79% of CIOs said they would use generative AI to change their company’s business model. These are executives’ reported views and intentions, not forecasts that every company will make those changes.
That makes technology a strategic question, not simply an implementation concern. Decisions about data, AI, platforms, cybersecurity, and workforce capabilities can shape the products a company offers and how it delivers them. Business leaders need to include technology leaders while options are still being considered, rather than asking them only to estimate or execute a settled plan.
More technology spending does not guarantee alignment
Investment and alignment are different measures. Grant Thornton’s 2025 survey of more than 550 executives found that 93% were investing more in technology, while 27% said their technology was fully aligned with business goals. The figures describe that survey’s respondents; they do not establish why alignment was limited at particular companies.
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Readiness can also lag ambition. In PwC’s 2024 US Pulse Survey, 40% of respondents said their IT function was completely prepared to support a new business model. The gap matters because a company can fund new tools without changing the processes, responsibilities, skills, or customer experience needed to make those tools useful.
Capability perceptions are another consideration. Gartner’s survey of 456 CEOs and other senior executives worldwide, conducted June–November 2024, found that CEOs deemed 44% of CIOs AI-savvy. This measures how CEOs viewed CIO capability; it is not a direct assessment of every CIO’s technical knowledge or an objective ranking of AI readiness.
Choose a working model that fits the organization
There is no single reporting structure established as best for every company. A technology leader who reports to the CEO may have more direct access to executive discussions, but reporting lines alone do not ensure shared decisions, suitable investment, or accountable execution. Compare the operating arrangements that determine how strategy is made and delivered.
| Comparison | Questions for executives |
|---|---|
| Strategic access | Does the technology leader participate early in business strategy, business-model, and workforce discussions? Can the leader raise trade-offs with the CEO and board when relevant? |
| Decision integration | Are business and technology choices made jointly in routine planning, or handed from one function to another after key decisions are set? |
| Accountability | Does each initiative have a stated business objective—such as customer value, revenue, efficiency, or risk—and an accountable business owner as well as a technology owner? |
| Execution structure | Are people from technology and business functions working together around products or capabilities, or operating in separate teams connected mainly through governance meetings? |
| Context and control | Does the arrangement suit the company’s size, regulatory setting, operating model, and need for specialized oversight? |
Deloitte’s 2025 analysis of around 400 US business leaders across eight sectors, surveyed from September 2024 to January 2025, found that 42% of respondents whose digital leaders reported to the CEO viewed digital as central to overall strategy, compared with 25% where digital leaders reported to another C-suite executive. This is an association between reporting arrangements and respondents’ views, not proof that moving a leader to the CEO’s line causes digital to become strategic.
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Structure should follow the work the company needs to do. A business with highly interdependent products may benefit from cross-functional teams organized around products or capabilities. A company that needs strong specialist controls may retain centralized technology governance while bringing business owners into investment and delivery decisions. In either case, clarify decision rights: who sets priorities, who approves risk, who owns customer or operating outcomes, and who resolves conflicts between functions.
Make shared strategy part of everyday operating routines
Strategy discussions can establish direction, but teams need recurring ways to turn that direction into coordinated action. Deloitte’s 2025 leadership and teaming analysis recommends driving decisions from the center and integrating them into daily activity. Its US technology-leader survey, conducted March 7–April 1, 2025 with 622 participants, reported that 65% of CIOs reported directly to the CEO and 80% of technology executives said their roles had significantly expanded to meet business objectives. These results come from a separate survey population than Deloitte’s reporting-line comparison.
Executives can put the principle into practice by making technology and business planning part of the same operating rhythm:
- Set priorities together. In strategy and budget reviews, define the customer or business problem before selecting a technology solution. Include the CIO or CTO early enough to identify dependencies, risks, and feasible options.
- Assign joint ownership. Give a business leader responsibility for the outcome and a technology leader responsibility for the enabling capabilities. Make decision authority explicit, including who can change scope or stop an initiative.
- Plan for organizational change. Include workforce skills, process changes, collaboration, and adoption in the transformation plan. Treat these as necessary parts of delivery, not follow-up tasks after implementation.
- Review progress in operating meetings. Track business outcomes alongside delivery milestones and technical health. When an initiative falls short, determine whether the issue is the solution, the operating process, adoption, or an assumption about customer need.
Deloitte’s Ranjit Bawa, US chief strategy and technology officer, describes the aim as ongoing reinvention: “Organizations that realize the most value are those making strategic choices with a future-ready enterprise in mind. As we enter a world increasingly shaped by AI and bold business reimagination, the path to success depends on the actions leaders take today. When decisions are driven from the center and integrated into daily activity across the organization, transformation becomes a mechanism for ongoing reinvention—not a one-time effort.”
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Judge progress by outcomes, not org charts
Executives can use a small set of measures to test whether technology decisions are connected to business goals. Choose measures that fit the initiative rather than treating one metric as a universal alignment score.
- Business objective: Is the intended result stated in concrete terms, such as improving a customer journey, enabling a product, reducing a process cost, or managing a defined risk?
- Customer or operating evidence: Is there a baseline and a recurring way to see whether the intended change is happening?
- Readiness: Are the systems, data, people, processes, and decision rights in place to support the operating model the company intends to use?
- Shared accountability: Can business and technology leaders explain who owns the result and how trade-offs are decided?
- Adaptation: Do routine reviews lead to changes in priorities, ways of working, or investment when evidence contradicts assumptions?
These checks distinguish genuine alignment from activity alone. A project delivered on schedule can still miss its business objective; conversely, a useful strategic capability may require organizational changes that extend beyond the initial technology rollout.
Further reading on the people side of transformation
The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation, by Gerald C. Kane, Anh Nguyen Phillips, Jonathan R. Copulsky, and Garth R. Andrus, examines the organizational change, processes, and collaboration involved in digital transformation. It is useful context for the people and operating-model dimensions, rather than a prescriptive governance chart.
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