The CIO’s Essential Skill As the top technology executive in an organization, the CIO needs to communicate effectively with the executive staff to ensure alignment of technology strategy with overall business strategy. I’ll frequently state that I can tell the maturity of the marketing department in an organization by one key word: digital. For example, if a marketing department states that they need a digital marketer, I automatically know that the marketing department is not up-with-the-times. Digital-Marketing is Marketing now and businesses can’t live without it. Similarly, when a mid-sized+ business states that they don’t need a CIO, I know