Excellent article in CIO about the prognosis for the role of CIO. Read it in full here, but some good quotes with my responses;

The true CIO is a strategic thinker focused on business issues and needs, and does not have a lot to do with day to day IT operational tasks, and sure as hell doesn’t dive down to deep technical levels.

Read solution-centric and user-centric approach rather than focusing on technology.

This blog has long been a battleground for the “what place IT departments in the 2.0 future discussion. The article in CIO only adds to the debate.

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

3 Comments
  • The quote rings true. So the answer to the question is no.

    CIOs who are more attuned to business needs (both internal and external), will always be looking for and implementing solutions that will enable/enhance/assist the business. Hence, these CIOs will always and consistently add value to the business, even if it is not measured in the influx of dollars that say, the sales division would bring.

    One alternative way to think about the “value of IT”, is to ask:

    “What do you think will happen if your entire business’ IT division suddenly just decided to go on a holiday for a month, or even a day?”

  • Couldn’t agree more. I think we need to ensure we call a spade a spade as it were. Organisations require both IT managers and CIOs and should not merge those two roles.

  • I think more accurately good CIO’s are business people not technologists…to me this means that theres a good chance the the CIO role will expand not die

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