He added that it is important to free time to build relationships with the key stakeholders, but stressed the need to manage time. "At this level you need to spend time with the right people, be focused on the right things and have the necessary headroom to think strategically," noted Locandro.

There is only so much time in a CIO's day and no-one can do everything so a good litmus test for aspiring CIOs is to ask how much time is being spent on what Locandro calls "business-as-usual" activities such as managing the data center, monitoring applications and networks.