Telling the IT Story

Veteran CIO and executive leadership coach Larry Bonfante explains why logic alone won't win the budget battle—and offers three types of narratives—descriptive, anecdotal, and metaphorical—that will translate IT value into meaningful terms that connect with stakeholders.

I've spent years helping leadership tell the IT story better. It's a critical competency—and one that doesn't come naturally to most technology executives.

Ask an IT leader about a project, and they'll whip out an eight-page Gantt chart with tasks, milestones, and dependencies. They're great at the "how." But ask them why they're doing it—why this initiative instead of the dozen other things competing for funding—and many struggle to articulate a compelling answer. This how-why gap affects everything from motivating your team to securing funding from the board.

The stakes have never been higher. Global IT spending continues to grow—Gartner projects it will exceed $6 trillion in 2026, driven largely by AI infrastructure. But that spending is concentrated. For IT leaders competing for budget outside the AI spotlight, the pressure to justify every dollar has intensified. In a Forrester blog summarizing the firm's 2026 predictions, VP and Research Director Mark Moccia notes that two-thirds of CIOs will need to explicitly link tech spend to business value in 2026. The money is there. The question is, “Who can make the case to get it?”

Here's the uncomfortable truth: Chief Revenue Officers and Chief Marketing Officers are usually much better at painting a picture of why they should get the organization's limited dollars. Most IT leaders are left-brain wired, and many are introverts. The idea of "marketing" the value of what they're proposing feels uncomfortable at best—and impure at worst. This has changed somewhat—today's CIOs are more business-savvy than their predecessors—but the discomfort persists. Even IT leaders who understand the importance of storytelling often default to data and logic when the stakes are high.

That discomfort is costing them.

Value Isn't the Same as Cost

IT value is often reduced to a single variable: What does it cost?

But cost doesn't tell the whole story. If I told you I spent $50 for dinner last night, can you tell me if that was a good value? It depends. A Happy Meal at the local McDonald's drive-through? Terrible value. A medium ribeye at Smith & Wollensky's? A steal.

IT is too often viewed as a sunk cost—an operational expense to be minimized. We need to reframe the conversation. Technology isn't an expense; it's an investment. And investments are measured by their return.

The Metrics That Actually Matter

To make that case, IT leaders need to understand what creates value—and how to measure it in terms their boards and executive peers understand.

Too often, IT projects are evaluated on whether they came in on time and on budget. Those matter, but they're not what's most critical. The word I use with my clients is impact. What impact will this project have on the business? Will it drive new revenue? Create operational efficiencies? Enhance customer satisfaction? Improve time to market? Retire technical debt?

I learned this early in my career. A chief executive asked me to continue investing in a nascent program to increase player participation by 20%. The investment hadn’t delivered, and we were spending as much on a program supporting 30,000 players as on our flagship program supporting 750,000. When I framed it that way, it changed how he thought about the investment entirely. The data hadn't changed. The story had.

Logic Alone Won't Win

Having the vocabulary to talk about value is only half the battle. The other half is telling a compelling story.

Too many technology executives believe logic will carry the day. They think, “If I have enough data and strong enough metrics, I'm sure to get the support I need.”

That's malarkey.

The people who get funded aren't always the ones with the best business case. They're the ones who tell the most compelling stories.

There's science behind this. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman identified two systems the brain uses to make decisions. System 1 is fast, automatic, and emotional—it kicks in first. System 2 is slower and more analytical. Kahneman's research suggests that 96% of our thinking runs through System 1.

The implication is profound: until a person feels something, all the logic in the world doesn't register. You have to engage them emotionally first—fear, excitement, opportunity, urgency. Only then does the rational case have a foundation to land on.

CIOs often bristle at this. It feels manipulative, but it's not. It's about understanding how human beings make decisions—and communicating accordingly.

Know Your Audience

When people ask how I present to a board, I tell them: I'm not presenting to a board. I'm presenting to twelve different people.

Yes, there should be an overarching theme. But each stakeholder sees your message through their own lens. The CFO cares about different things than the Chief Commercial Officer. The board member with an operations background has different concerns than the one who came up through sales.

If you don't understand those individual agendas—and tailor your message to address them—you'll get mediocre results at best.

When I walk into a leadership meeting, I help the CMO understand how our investment would enhance the product's brand. I help the CFO understand how the investment would drive efficiency. I help the CEO understand that it will improve the experience for key stakeholders: the same project, three different framings. 

Three Types of Stories

Beyond tailoring to your audience, you need to craft stories that make people feel something—and leave them with a picture that stays with them long after the meeting ends.

I teach my clients about three types of stories:

• Descriptive stories: These paint a picture. They put the audience in a scene and create an emotional response. Years ago, I was running late to a tennis match with a close colleague—one of the most senior African American officials in the sport. In my rush, I was pulled over by a state trooper. I was annoyed—late and now getting a ticket. I said, "This really sucks." Tony smiled and said, "It could have sucked a lot worse. I could have been driving the car." It stopped me cold. The worst I faced was a ticket. For him, the same encounter could have gone very differently. I share this story with IT leaders as a reminder: not everyone in your meetings experiences the same reality. If you want your story to land, you have to understand where they're coming from and be sensitive to how they receive what you have to say.

• Anecdotal stories: These are based on actual events. To borrow a phrase from Dick Wolf, creator of Law & Order, they're "ripped from the headlines." Because they're grounded in real events, they carry credibility and weight. When my son-in-law asked for my daughter’s hand, he was ghost-white. My daughter had told him, "We're an Italian family. If you want to marry me, you have to ask my dad." After I said yes, he showed me the ring—impressive for two schoolteachers—I said, "Nice rock." He said, "Go big or go home." I've shared that line with many clients facing difficult conversations. When the stakes are high, you can't hedge.

• Metaphorical stories: These are parables that teach a lesson. They translate complex or abstract concepts into something memorable. At Pfizer, I ran Global Network Services. We had to get six continents and seven business units—150 locations —onto one network in six months. We partnered with Cisco Systems and developed two standard “cookie-cutter” solutions. It was working everywhere except Asia. John Chambers, Cisco's CEO, came to my office to troubleshoot. After 30 minutes, we realized the Cisco sales team in Asia was selling a different product because it had a higher profit margin. I told John, “The only way a Cisco salesperson gets paid is if they sell our standard solutions.” He agreed. The next day, the problem was solved. The moral: people do what they are incentivized to do.

The IT Leader as Evangelist

Whether we realize it or not, IT executives need to be evangelists. If we can't get people excited about the work we do and the value it creates, we will always finish behind the executives who can.

Your stakeholders are human beings who respond to emotion. A compelling story that makes them feel what you want them to feel is more compelling than reams of data.

The IT leaders who win aren't the ones with the most data. They're the ones who make people feel something—and give them a story they can retell.