Ward and Peppard (2002) believe that in today’s web-based and Internet era the role of a CIO has evolved greatly from that of any previous era’s.
They believe that their major tasks now include involvement in the developing of the business / IT model, and introducing management processes that leverage technologies, particularly that of the Internet. They also feel that they should drive and shape the strategy of a business.
The CIO Executive Research Center (1999) believes that there are some key trends as to where the role of a CIO lies today. They also believe that today the role of a CIO is moving towards strategic planning. Although they do feel that CIO’s at the moment do tend to focus on the planning and implementation of specific information technologies, rather than on long-term company strategy.
Andrew Wnek is a CIO and senior vice-president of IT for Canadian Tire Corp. He believes that the CIO is a senior executive and as a result participates in all aspects of Canadian Tire Corp’s business strategy. (, 2001)
It is apparent today that the main view of many people is that a CIO’s main role should be to be present in all board meetings to share their view as to how the company’s business IT and strategies could be aligned and suggest which new technologies should be purchased in order to provide the best results for the business. With vast percentages of many businesses annual spending being on IT, it is important that each strategy can run together and when new technology is purchased it meets the required specification.
Some of the strategies that a CIO may be asked to adopt are areas such as revenue generation, streamlining operations and customer service. (O’Donnell, 2001)
Other possible strategies may be adopted in order to shorten time-to-market of the designs for new products or services. With many companies now operating on a global scale, whether it be for the sale of their product or the manufacturing of it i.e. low-cost manufacturing in countries such as China, the CIO must co-ordinate the deployment of the technology in order to deliver the robust logistics line successfully. (Karlgaard, 2003)
4.1 Other Responsibilities CIO’s Hold
Apart from being involved in the strategic planning undertaken by a business, a CIO has many other responsibilities.
Since the increase in importance of a CIO’s role within a company, they have taken on new leadership responsibilities both inside and outside the IS department – without being able to shake their old tactical duties. (Varon, 2002)
It is due to this that a CIO is now responsible for the hiring and developing of high quality IT professionals to which they can effectively delegate work to. “With so much of CIO’s time taken up by strategic responsibilities, the ability to delegate daily decisions about operations, systems development and personnel to the managers who report to them is critical.” (Varon, 2002)
CIO’s also retain responsibility for keeping their company’s existing systems in working order and current projects on track: “I can't talk about new ideas if the stuff I deliver is broken,” says Peter Lopez, CIO of Cleveland-based GE Lighting, a division of General Electric. Lopez says that up to 25% of his day can be spent troubleshooting problems, although he is mostly ensuring that his staff is fixing what is wrong. He does make tactical decisions though, if the solution requires input from people on the business side, or when he needs to prioritise which of several problems to tackle first. "If I'm not delivering systems every day, that means lost productivity," Lopez says. (Varon, 2002)
Andrew Wnek, CIO and senior vice-president of IT for Canadian Tire Corp lists his major responsibilities to include delivering projects on time and on budget, aligning activities to the strategic plan, setting priorities for the future, giving advice and counsel, and providing a strategic capability. (, 2001)
Mary Fonder, CIO for Maysteel - a manufacturing company in Milwaukee USA says one of her major responsibilities is to educate her fellow employees on technologies that will help her company. With a CIO now having an expertise in business operations, they must decide and communicate to the relevant parties as to how IT could benefit the company, whether it is to simply save on costs or improve their profit margin.
(Varon, 2002)
Apart from educating potential IT strategies to members of the board above them, a CIO must also communicate and educate the staff below them as to what the development of a system means to the overall direction of the company, whatever department they are in. (O’Donnell, 2001)
5.0 The Future Role of a CIO
With the role of a CIO constantly evolving, there are many questions as to what their job may entail in the future.
For the immediate future, changes to the role and abilities of a CIO are in the process of being addressed by many organisations. Although some companies will have met these challenges some time ago, many are still wising up to the positive prospects a modern day CIO can bring. These challenges include:
- Transforming the IT function from tactical operations to more global strategic planning
- Redefining the appropriate training and background of the CIO to include more business and financial experience in addition to a technical background,
- Improving the communication between the CIO and senior policy makers in the organisation
- Making sure that the value of the IT function is more fully understood by senior management
- Understanding why the current CIO role remains largely out of sync with the increasing importance of IT to a company's success
- Learning how to harness the changing IT function to maximise corporate competitiveness and growth.
(CIO Executive Research Center, 1999)
In the year 2000, Michael Earl, London Business School Professor of Information Management proclaimed that within five years the job of a CIO would be split in two. He believed that the chief executive and the board would take on the business and IS strategy functions while responsibility technical policy, service delivery and infrastructure would be concentrated in a Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Although this has not fully materialised as of yet, this could be the future of a CIO in the next five years from now. (Riley, 2000)
William McNee of Gartner Group predicted a similar kind of change in the role of a CIO. In a recent interview in IT Professional he believes that within five years “business information executives” - professionals panning from the business side of the company would take over strategic e-business planning, while the CIO would only be responsible for the infrastructure of their organisations. (Heller, 2004)
In the long term there is also a belief that the role of a CIO may disappear completely.
Tom Davenport, director of the Andersen Consulting Institute for Strategic Change, believes that in 25 years the role of the CIO may no longer exist. He considers the role of a CIO only to be effective in the short-term for the “fitting of computers into the company”. He feels that the future will bring a Chief Knowledge Officer to manage the organisations informational and intellectual assets. (Heller, 2004)
For many businesses the future role of their CIO may stand in their own hands. With companies now recognising the fact that their CIO can be a key player in the strategic direction of the business, it is up to them to decide whether to harness the possibilities and let the CIO’s role grow whether it be to benefit their own bank balance or simply keep up with their competitors.
The long-term future of the CIO may also depend on each individual CIO and the projects and strategies that have been adopted by the business. Success and high profits would surely help secure the position of the CIO for some time to come.
6.0 Personal Profile of a CIO
With the globalisation of many corporations through the 80’s and 90’s and the challenges brought on by changes in markets and the resulting upward and downward shifts to the scale of their operations, many companies have now invested in vast resources to reengineer their operations. It is no surprise that it has been estimated that companies worldwide are now spending $52 billion a year on reengineering, of which $40 billion goes annually into information technology. At the center of this investment stands the CIO; they are responsible for many of the most volatile and costly changes within an organisation. In order to cope with this responsibility a modern CIO needs to have certain skills and abilities. (CIO Executive Research Center, 1999)
Many people have spoken of their ideas as to what makes a great CIO, and although there are no defined rules many academic’s views stand the same.
Ward and Peppard (2002) believe that there are four key areas to profile of a successful CIO. These are:
- Behavior
- loyalty to the company
- management style is open
- is seen to have integrity
- Motivation
- goal orientated
- comfortable as a change agent
- creative and encourages ideas
3. Competencies
- is a consultant/facilitator
- good at communicating
- has a knowledge of IT
- able to achieve results through effective delegation
4. Experience
- experienced in an IS development role
(Ward, 2002)
Mark Polansky is a managing director and member of the advanced technology practice of Korn/Ferry International in New York City. He agrees with the above factors that are included in Ward and Peppard’s profile, but also has some extra thoughts on what other qualities make a good CIO. Polansky feels that leadership is the most important requirement for a CIO. He believes that leaders serve as role models and stimulate and coax ideas from the people around them. Polansky also states that knowledge of their specific industry is also a key factor and is often a very common request when companies are seeking to employ a CIO. (Polansky, 2001)
Rich Brennen, Global Leader of CIO Practice Spencer Stuart believes that CIO’s must know their company and industry as well as (or better than) their peers. He feels they must also possess or acquire board-level leadership skills. “CIO’s must be able to attract and retain great people, and must have the charisma, vision, strategic and relationship skills associated with the best executives in the world.” (Karlgaard, 2003)
Tarun Inuganti (2003) Partner in CIO Practice Korn/Ferry International also believes that a CIO should know their company and industry. She says “Know the business. Learn and master every aspect of it - net income, its management, its products, its vendors, its sales channels, its customers, its competition.” (Karlgaard, 2003)
In comparison to previous years when a CIO may have been trained in only engineering and computer science, today it is expected they also have background knowledge in finance, marketing and strategic planning, as well as an expertise in their chosen business environment. (CIO Executive Research Center, 1999)
There is also the fact that with CIO having to align their IT strategy with the business strategy they must have knowledge in both the current IT technologies available, and be able to understand their current business’ strategies in order to let them both runs smoothly.
In contrast to these views though, Roy Dunbar, CIO at the $11 billion pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly was initially trained as a pharmacist before taking on his role as CIO. He had no previous technology training and has since been promoted to president of intercontinental operations after a series of successful ventures that have made IT an integral part of the company’s business strategy. (Stahl, 2003)
7.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that it is clear that the modern day role of a CIO has become a key a part of any company’s day to day running. This is due to the fact that IT has evolved in recent years to become an integral part of the business resulting in the need for a significant individual to take charge of the department. It is with these technological advances that the executives have now realised that their business strategy must be aligned with that of the IT department in order for the business to run smoothly, and with the CIO having all the knowledge in regards to modern day technology they have also come to realise that the CIO must now be not only consulted when deciding on new business and IT strategies but in some cases be given full responsibility.
In regards to question ‘has the CIO made it to the board’, from my research I believe that in most cases the CIO does have a ‘seat at the table’ in respects to a company’s board meetings, but it is of my opinion that many still have not been accepted as an official board member. This though should not continue for too long as the remainder of the companies realise that the views and knowledge of a modern day CIO are essential in the area of strategic planning.
8.0 Bibliography
CIO Executive Research Center, (1999) The Changing Role of the Chief Information Officer. Available from: [Internet], [Accessed on 15/12/2003]
(2002) What is a CIO? Available from: http://www.cio.com/summaries/role/description/ [Internet], [Accessed on 15/12/2003]
Heller, Martha (2004) CIO’s and the Future. Available from: CIO Magazine, 15/1/2004
Karlgaard, Rich (2003) What Makes a Great CIO? Available from: Forbes, 24/11/2003
O’Donnell, Anthony (2001) CIO Role Shifts From Systems to Strategy. Available from: Insurance and Technology Journal, May 2001
Polansky, Mark (2001) The Top 10 Requirements of the CIO Position. Available from: CIO Magazine, 15/09/2001
Riley, John (2000) Organise your team on the dotcom model. Available from: Computer Weekly, 22/6/2000
, Martin (2001) CIO role grows in influence on CEO, corporate strategy. Available from: Computing Canada Journal, 27/7/2001
Stahl, Stephanie (2003) Change is the only constant. Available from:
, 15/12/2003
Ward, John. Peppard, Joe (2002) Strategic Planning for Information Systems. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.
Varon, Elana (2002) “Responsibilities” Available from: CIO Magazine, 1/3/2002
