New Forrester research points to a looming fork in the road for chief information officers, although for many IT Week readers this may already be pretty clear.

As business leaders increasingly see the strategic value of technology to their organisation, the opportunities for IT chiefs to become agents for change and innovation for the business are growing. But equally important is the need for CIOs who can be general managers of their IT infrastructure.

Although the latter will remain in the majority, as expectations of IT continue to grow and the pressure for delivering projects on time increases, following the path of change management could represent the best chance for IT leaders to further their careers. If CIOs can take advantage of the almost unparalleled view across all areas of the organisation that their role affords, the board will surely reward them with a more central position in the running of the company.

Forrester argues that the CIO role complements the perspectives of chief financial and chief executive officers, so it would surely not take a great leap for business-focused IT leaders to eventually land the top job in their organisations.