Recovering from the Great Recession has been an arduous process for a number of companies in nearly every market in the world. However, the more stable that businesses become, the more confident their leaders may feel, which could prompt them to take risks and aim high when it comes to setting objectives for their organizations.According to a recent Gartner survey, which gauged the attitudes of CEOs and senior business executives around the globe, showed that a significant share of companies are ready to get back in the game, making growth a top priority this year and investing more money to fund these expansion endeavors. That being said, these international business leaders know that they cannot achieve these goals by themselves and acknowledge that they must enlist the help of highly skilled IT professionals so that they can reap ample ROI from their efforts.Organizations want growth and assistanceBased on Gartner’s findings, it seems that even though CEOs plan to pour money into developing their businesses, they do not necessarily have the tech know-how to foster the kind of growth that they wish to render. As a result, these leaders will somehow have to find the tools – and the people – capable of bridging the gap between their staffs’ business knowledge and tech-savviness.”Looking at this 5-year investment perspective of the majority of respondents something quickly becomes clear,” said Mark Raskino, vice president of Gartner. “Many business leaders are lagging behind in their understanding of what digital business means, and the disruptions that are only slightly ahead of them. One of the most important things the CIO can do over the next year or two is close the very big gap in understanding, by working on education for the board, executives, senior and middle management layers. A decade of believing that IT was a commodity function, to be mostly outsourced, has left many business leaders in a position of relative weakness. Their vision and knowledge of the changes that technology makes possible are not strong enough. Their abilities in making deep, technology-enabled business change happen are not well practiced.”CEOs need to acknowledge that they will not be able to achieve their expansion goals on their own. To assist them in implementing advanced tools that will help them boost efficiency, grow their operations and maximize profits, companies will have to work on recruiting and retaining invaluable employees. CEOs will prioritize finding ideal CIOs to lead their tech endeavors, in addition to building a supportive staff of skilled employees to help these executives make progress in realizing their innovative objectives.CIOs need to bridge business and IT fieldsEven though companies will be looking to hire IT professionals throughout the next year, CEOs should bear in mind that not all tech candidates are created equal. Because CIOs and their staff members will have to take their specialized skills and apply them to business practices, they need to possess a unique set of other competencies to guarantee their efforts will actually prove successful in growing their employers’ operations.First and foremost, having a profound and broad understanding of how businesses work is key, according to Computerworld. It is not enough for IT professionals to be aware of the most advanced tech solutions on the market. Instead, these staff members also have to know about their companies’ markets and their dynamics, as well as all the nitty-gritty details about their internal mechanisms and processes. By reaching a sufficient understanding of the business end of their organizations, CIOs and their talented teams can take their tech expertise and know exactly which tools to employ where and in which manner so that they can revolutionize how their companies operate, ensuring optimal performance and paving the way for steady growth.Furthermore, business skills are essential for IT executives so that they can measure the results – or lack thereof – of their innovative initiatives. Computerworld explained that it is not enough to look at the expenses saved from boosting efficiency through tech endeavors. Short-term dollar signs are not the be-all and end-all benefits that IT can bring companies, and CIOs should be able to examine the impact of their initiatives in aspects beyond finances. If they are capable of analyzing the effects of their efforts in various aspects of their companies, they can continuously fine-tune their functions, identifying weak areas and adjusting them accordingly as their organizations develop.