The rapidly evolving tech landscape has led many CIOs and tech leaders to an arm-wrestling match: one hand wants to prioritise innovation, and the other wants to "keep the lights on."
Will CIOs in 2025 rise to the challenge of balancing innovation and stability, or will the struggle tip too far to one side?
Innovation vs. maintenance conundrum
Mohd Hanapi Bisri, group information technology (Group IT) at Petra Energy Berhad, highlighted a common challenge for organisations: the disproportionate allocation of resources. 60-70% of resources are dedicated to operational maintenance, which covers legacy system support, cybersecurity, and compliance with ISO and audit requirements.
As a result, only 10-20% of the approved budget remains for transformation, innovation, and emerging technologies, falling short of the ideal 30-40%. While maintaining critical operations is essential, Hanapi warned that underfunding innovation can hinder digital transformation, reduce competitiveness, and slow adaptation to evolving market demands.
“A strategic shift towards prioritising emerging technologies is crucial for long-term growth and resilience,” insists Hanapi.
Identifying and evaluating innovative projects
With innovation budgets shrinking to accommodate business-as-usual operations, CIOs need the skill of identifying and evaluating which innovative projects to focus on.
Hanapi shared a three-pronged approach to selecting innovative projects that align with strategic goals:
First, he urged CIOs to prioritise projects directly supporting business objectives, assessing alignment with the organisation's strategic goals, potential ROI, sustainability, cost reduction, and long-term value creation. This will ensure that innovation drives measurable business outcomes.
He said CIOs can also analyse risk and feasibility "considering the project's impact on existing IT infrastructure, security, and compliance requirements, minimising disruption to critical services."
Finally, Hanapi highlighted the importance of evaluating resource allocation and prioritisation. He said CIOs can maximise "data-driven frameworks to allocate resources, focusing on initiatives that offer the highest strategic value."
With innovation budgets tightening to support business-as-usual operations, CIOs must develop the ability to identify and evaluate high-impact projects that drive transformation and leverage emerging technologies.
Hanapi believes a structured approach to budget allocation can ensure that investments align with strategic goals and deliver measurable value. He shared a three-pronged framework that can guide CIOs in selecting and prioritising innovative projects:
- Strategic Alignment and Value Assessment
CIOs should prioritise projects that directly contribute to business transformation by assessing their alignment with organisational goals, potential ROI, sustainability, cost optimisation, and long-term value creation. This ensures that innovation efforts translate into tangible business outcomes rather than isolated technological advancements.
- Risk and Feasibility Analysis
Evaluating the potential impact of innovation projects on existing IT infrastructure, security, and compliance requirements is critical. CIOs must assess technical feasibility, integration challenges, and potential disruptions to core business operations to minimise risks while enabling scalable innovation.
- Data-Driven Resource Allocation
Leveraging data-driven frameworks, CIOs can optimise budget allocation by focusing on initiatives that provide the highest strategic value. This involves assessing investment trade-offs, balancing short-term gains with long-term transformation potential, and ensuring that emerging technologies receive adequate funding to drive competitive advantage.
By systematically identifying and evaluating innovative projects, CIOs can maximise the impact of their transformation budgets, fostering agility, efficiency, and long-term business growth.
Striking a balance
Achieving innovation success requires a balanced approach. A bimodal IT strategy enables organisations to maintain operational stability while exploring innovative technologies. By leveraging automation and continuous improvementframeworks like DevOps, businesses can optimise daily operations efficiently.
Governance and compliance play a critical role—clear audit mechanisms ensure resource allocation follows value-driven criteria, preventing overextension and aligning innovation with business objectives. Strategic governance frameworks prioritise investments that drive measurable impact.
Beyond technical execution, addressing emotional and spiritual well-being is essential. A values-based leadership approach fosters motivation, resilience, and ethical decision-making, ensuring sustainable innovation. Organisations that balance technological agility, governance compliance, and emotional intelligence create an environment where creativity thrives while maintaining stability.
By striking this equilibrium, businesses can drive transformational success, ensuring both immediate operational efficiency and long-term strategic growth while upholding compliance and ethical responsibility.
Culture of innovation and operational excellence
Beyond IT strategies and governance frameworks, company culture plays a massive role in achieving equilibrium. A balanced culture, as Hanapi emphasised, reassures and instils confidence in the team's ability to manage both innovation and operational excellence.
Hanapi believes fostering a balanced culture starts with strategic alignment and vision. CIOs must define a clear strategy that integrates innovation with operational excellence, aligning with the organisation's business objectives. This vision should ensure IT teams understand how new technologies enhance efficiency while maintaining system reliability.
For Hanapi, organisations should balance resource allocation, create dedicated teams or time for innovation, maintain critical operations, and prioritise initiatives based on their potential impact on business growth.
Lastly, he urges organisations to foster a collaborative culture where teams can share knowledge and work cross-functionally.
"Encourage experimentation with guardrails that protect operational stability," he said.
Measuring success
Organisations must measure their success based on the following criteria Hanapi shared to monitor progress.
He said organisations could measure value creation and business impact through KPIs such as ROI, new market penetration, and customer satisfaction, as these directly link innovation to business outcomes.
Moreover, Hanapi shared that organisations can measure operational efficiency and stability by tracking system uptime, incident resolution times, and service availability.
He also shared that organisations should assess their ability to adapt and scale innovations through metrics such as time to market for new products, the number of iterative improvements, and resource allocation efficiency.
Assessing risks
Like two sides of a coin, innovation comes with risks, such as operational disruption, resource allocation and capacity, and balancing long-term and short-term goals.
"CIOs evaluate how innovation initiatives might disrupt critical operations, including system reliability, service delivery, and business continuity. Prioritising innovation must not jeopardise core functions that sustain organisational stability and customer trust," Hanapi said.
He noted that CIOs should analyse available resources, including budget, talent, and infrastructure, to address resource allocation and capacity risks.
For Hanapi, assessing potential ROI, scalability, and alignment with future business goals is also crucial. He said this can "ensure innovation drives sustainable growth without compromising present operational integrity."
Emerging technologies in innovation strategy
Emerging technologies play a crucial role in balancing innovative success with operational excellence while ensuring compliance with clear audit and governance standards.
According to Hanapi, AI and cloud computing enhance efficiency by automating IT operations, optimising resource allocation, and minimising downtime. Hanapi also emphasises their value-driven impact, enabling the creation of new business models, products, and services.
Finally, the Petra Energy Berhad executive highlights their role in stability and adaptability: “Scalable technologies like cloud computing support evolving needs while maintaining reliable operations.” Additionally, integrating spiritual behavior fosters emotional well-being, ensuring ethical innovation that aligns with holistic success and sustainable growth.
Engaging stakeholders, leveraging partnerships
Investing in appropriate emerging technologies is only half the battle. To maximise their full potential, stakeholders and partners must realise the value of innovation.
After aligning innovative initiatives with business goals, Hanapi urges organisations to demonstrate reliable risk mitigation to foster trust:
"CIOs should present a well-planned risk management strategy that ensures operational reliability during innovation. By emphasising contingencies, system resilience, and proactive risk mitigation, they can assure stakeholders that core services won't be disrupted." Mohd Hanapi Bisri
In Hanapi’s view, CIOs should also be transparent in allocating resources to innovation and essential operations, with clear timelines, budgets, and performance metrics, to foster trust and encourage support.
Leveraging partnerships and collaborations are vital for business success, but Hanapi reminds organisations to be strategic when selecting partners.
"CIOs should identify partnerships that align with long-term business goals and offer expertise in emerging technologies, allowing organisations to access innovation without overburdening internal resources," he noted.
Hanapi reminded that there are also shared innovation platforms or ecosystems where collaboration drives mutual benefits, minimising costs, and resource strain by sharing R&D investments with partners.
"By outsourcing non-core innovations, CIOs can maintain focus on critical system reliability while driving growth," he said.
Innovation and operational maintenance
Achieving innovative success while maintaining operational excellence requires a delicate balance guided by clear audit and governance compliance, value-driven criteria, and spiritual behaviour for emotional well-being.
Rather than a conflict between sustaining operations and driving innovation, leaders must integrate both to future-proof businesses, foster growth, and create lasting impact. This synergy ensures accountability, resilience, and ethical decision-making, aligning technological advancements with sustainable execution.
By harmonising these elements, organisations can achieve transformative progress while upholding governance standards and addressing emotional needs, ultimately cultivating a culture where innovation and operational stability work hand in hand for long-term success.
