"If you're working for a company driven by quarterly performance and stock performance, one of the things the CIO will be asked to do will be to contribute to metrics. The short-term achievements of business process designers or enterprise architects might be difficult to demonstrate but if you're under pressure to demonstrate their short-term sustainability, explain the situation and get them working on some short-term projects so you can defend your desire to keep them through the downturn."

8. Start offering your vendors a free lunch

Tragically, Gartner advises that CIOs should say 'no' to courtesy trips and instead invite them for no-frills lunches to show their thrift and seriousness.

"You're sending a message that you're doing everything you can to sustain this business and keeping a level of interaction with senior people at major partners," Mahoney says.

9. Stop fearing the future and start driving it