The New CIO—Whose Hat Is It, Anyway?
By Cheryl Currid
The old joke that the job title CIO means "Career Is Over" could come back to common usage. It's not so much that the careers of CIOs are over, but many who found a place working on Y2K will have to find a new home solving today's problems. Now, a few months after the Y2K crusade has passed, CIOs must start showing corporate systems that match the coming millennium and not just one that's passing—systems that are more flexible, more measurable, and more perfectly in tune with business strategies.
Successful CIOs who pulled their companies through the Y2K problem could quickly fail trying to lead the organization's Internet strategy, or they could quickly absorb new techniques and retool some old skills to skillfully pilot companies toward e-business victory.
Don't be surprised if CIOs' strategies start to be considered as important as marketing or manufacturing strategies. Just as companies expect investors to react to consumer marketing messages or changes in their raw materials supply, they now rank IT strategy as a high-profile measuring stick. Commentators from the Wall Street Journal to CNBC are beginning to assess competent IT management along with other factors when they determine buy ratings. The market's view of a company's e-commerce strategy can be the cause of immediate and drastic market value swings.
Because of this, the mindsets of many CIOs will need to shift from one of maintaining control over internal assets to using systems to reach the world outside the company—to business partners, customers, and stockholders.
