The way forward is complex, but here are a few hints on how you should manage now. 1) Ask your CIO to parse out how much of his or her budget is IT (internal technology) versus BT. Depending on your industry, you should be in the 70/30 range, with a long-term plan of moving to 50/50. You will drive revenue and customer experience with BT -- guaranteeing your company's future. 2) Assess your CIO as to whether he or she has the capability to actually build and manage BT. If he has a high operational IQ but a low customer IQ, you may have the wrong horse for this race. 3) A noxious idea in the tech space is increasing your risk -- "Bi-Modal IT." This philosophy mandates slow change in core systems -- a risk that could ultimately sabotage your customer-facing systems, as we have seen recently in the Delta Air Lines outage. If your CIO is espousing this approach (versus a speedier strategy), your antennae should go up.