As the economic picture gets bleaker by the day, many CIOs are wondering just how they are going cope. Budgets will surely be cut at some point, staff may have to be let go, projects once deemed mission-critical may no longer garner the same support as in better times; basically, leading IT in a recession is going to be a new and bitter experience for many.

 

This was the theme of Ram Charan’s talk on Friday at CIOhio, an annual gathering of the midwest’s leading CIOs and business leaders hosted by TechColumbus. Charan, a PhD and advisor to some of the biggest names in business—Coke, Nike, DuPont, Bank of America—said times are tough and they are only going to get tougher. This will lead to a lot of hard decision-making very soon; decisions most people are not happy making and most employees are not happy hearing. So, what do you do?