CIO: CEO In The Offing?

CIO, as

in 'Career Is Over' was the standing joke in the CIOL organized C-Change

event two years ago. A lot has changed since then. I am talking of the 2006

C-Change event in Cairo, in January this year. With close to 80 top CIOs

participating in the event, I could sense an upbeat fervor (and this has nothing

to do with the belly dancer as we were cruising on the Nile, see picture on page

180) as they were talking about their role as Change Managers. It seemed a

distant dream that a similar set of executives were talking of an uncertain

future, only two years ago.

Why the change in such

a short time? It is a no brainer that organizations realize that they cannot

function without a good dose of IT and, hence, the importance of the CIO.

However, even more importantly, in many organizations, it is the CEO who is also

driving IT with the CIO directly reporting to him. Also, as line function heads

increasingly trying to define their IT requirements, CIOs are getting a taste of

the business side of technology as well. No wonder then that these guys are

donning the cap of the change agents.

This also leads to a

larger question-will we see the CIO moving into the CEO's office soon. So

far, it's typically been the CFO or the CMO who had the edge to move into the

hot seat. I am yet to hear of any CIO moving into the CEO office (let me know if

you have heard of any such instance). I think the trend might take off in a big

way, at least in high IT dependant companies.

Here's how he can

bring it on.

Firstly, the onus seems

to be on the CIO is bridge the gap between business and technology. While I saw

discontent simmering amongst a few CIOs as to why only they should try to

understand the business need and not the other way round, I think it is a good

thing for the IT heads. Look at it this way-if the CIO has to move to the CEOs

office, he needs to have a very good sense of his business and its various

nuances. And what can be better than getting these lessons hands-on. Chances are

very remote that the CMO or CFO would get into the tech area because technology

is perceived as arcane and geeky. Secondly, to take him to the next level, it is

imperative to brush up his communication skills. As I was listening to marketing

heads talking eloquently about the importance of IT, I found quite a few CIOs

not equally expressive about their domain area and the business impact IT has

made, during their respective presentations. It was just reading one ppt after

another.

Finally, I think the

CIOs should start taking some time off-a sabbatical-to learn the tricks of

the other functional areas. Again, I think this is much easier for the CIO than

the other CXOs as a majority of companies would like to ensure that the IT head

is aware of all aspects of business and will help the organization better and

more efficiently via IT. I hope the optimism I saw among those CIOs spreads

across the entire CIO community and they too start seeing the CIO not as

'Career Is Over' but as 'CEO In the Offing'.

Yograj Varma, associate editor, Dataquest 



yograjv@cybermedia.co.in