What CEOs Should Want in a CIO

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Career Development   Strategy  

Serving eight years as a CIO for a billion dollar company--in a very competitive industry--taught me much about what CEOs should want in their CIOs. What surprises me is that what they should want and what they think they want is often very different.

The most prevalent source of bad guidance seems to come from HR and the CFO. Many HR executives tend to think of CIOs as the head techno-geek, while all too often CFOs see them as glorified programmers or hardware junkies. Harsh, I know…but it is all too often the case.

At the end of the day, what a CEO should want from a CIO is a business professional/strategic thinker who understands how to use information technology to leverage the organization’s ability to sustain growth, compete effectively and continuously prosper. What the CEO doesn’t need is someone who grew up around computers, puts technology above people, clings to a specific computing philosophy or technology, or who can’t relate to the goals and objectives of the organization.

Instead, CEOs should be looking for CIOs who can lead, speak business, communicate with peers, garner the respect of the IT organization and who know how to achieve success. The outstanding CIO learns the business of the business. They should know it better than anyone else in the organization since they support it all. In fact, the CIO should be a …

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