For him, relationships are not a soft skill or an adjunct to leadership, but an infrastructure for making change happen. When trust is strong, organizations can collaborate faster, challenge assumptions more productively, and navigate uncertainty with greater confidence. Weak trust can stagnate even the best technology strategy.
Bridging the gap between IT and business
Remoreras’ views are rooted in long-held beliefs about the role of technology in the enterprise. Over the years, he says he has become passionate about solving the deep gulf between IT and business. In many organizations, the business still views IT primarily as a service provider, and technology leaders often reinforce that view by referring to business stakeholders as customers. While the term may seem innocuous, Remorelas believes it reflects a deeper problem.
In this model, the company sets the strategy, and IT receives it, translates it, and coordinates execution. This relationship is passive and the trust gap remains unresolved. “To me, that paradigm is reactive, and it exists primarily because the trust gap has not been fully resolved,” he says. The alternative is convergence, where business stakeholders are equal partners rather than customers. CIOs don’t just respond to strategy; they help shape it and clearly understand how technology capabilities, data, platforms, and AI can transform what’s possible.
“When trust exists, a different model emerges,” Lemoreras says. “Technology strategy becomes inseparable from business strategy.” This shift is even more important in the age of AI, as AI is more than just technology implementation; it will change decision-making, operational design, customer experience, risk, governance, and the way employees understand their roles. When technology and business leaders approach AI from opposite sides of the table, adoption is slower, more risky, and less likely to create meaningful value.
