They agree that the is undergoing a significant shift, brought about by the recession, globalization, the advent of , the explosion of big data, shifting business demands, and the omnipresence of consumer technology. To compete today and in the future, companies need CIOs who understand the businesses and can think of innovative ways to use technology to improve the customer experience, boost revenue, increase market share and accelerate business growth. This business imperative requires a different mix of capabilities than was necessary to be a successful CIO in the past. The CIOs of tomorrow need to focus much more on innovation, end customers and business growth, and much less on IT infrastructure.

Khalid Kark, a vice president and research director at Forrester Research, estimates that less than 10 percent of today's CIOs operate in this business-focused manner.

"We're starting to see a definite change in businesses' expectations of their CIOs and a lack of real competency in terms of CIOs' ability to meet those needs," says Kark.

As evidence, he notes that the ways companies assess the performance of their CIOs are changing. "Some CIOs are measured on business outcomes, such as end user or end customer satisfaction, revenue growth, whether they're bringing in a new revenue stream. They're not measured on uptime or on-time delivery of projects," says Kark.

He also points to turnover Forrester has observed in its client base, which in some cases is a result of companies looking for a different type of CIO, he says.