Behind the Firewall: Notes of a Punk CIO

In 2025, digital no longer supports the business—it is the business. Whether you’re in finance, retail, logistics, or law, you’re not an industry player using technology.

: Digital is the business

You’re a technology company competing in your industry.

This shift isn’t just semantic. It breaks the old mental model of business and IT as separate entities. IT is no longer a support function. It’s your core operating system—the way you serve customers, manage risk, enable scale, and create value.

And yet, most organizational diagrams still tell a different story. They’re structured around a top-down hierarchy: business leadership sets the direction, and IT “delivers” against it. We treat tech teams as vendors, not co-owners. We create cost pressure without addressing demand chaos. Then, ironically, we blame IT for being too expensive.

If digital is the business, then the way we work must reflect that. The operating model needs to shift from service delivery to cross-functional ownership. From project funding to product and value thinking. From isolated teams to composable, scalable platforms.

This also means rethinking roles and responsibilities. The business can no longer afford to be “non-technical.” It must become tech fluent—enough to co-lead. IT, in turn, must evolve from ticket taker to architect of outcomes. Not just “building what’s asked,” but challenging what’s needed.

We also need new governance. Instead of steering committees that rubber-stamp individual projects, we need shared accountability for outcomes, end-to-end value streams with clear ownership and measurable business impact – ideally supporting the wider business strategy.

And the ultimate question is: are we building a business that’s actually buildable under the new rules of the game? Because if it can’t be delivered, scaled, secured, and sustained—then it’s just theater.