Justin Hitt points out 10 good lessons for every CIO.

Some more lessons from my side:

- Carefully balance in- and outsourcing (simply outsource as much headache as possible, as long it is not competitive to your (core) business)

- Promote technology - never forget you have to spice up boring technology in order to get it budgeted and more important; used by end users.

- Keep costs flexible, demand can change quickly enough.