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Business vs technical experience for qualified CIOs

David Bashford EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: David Bashford

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QUESTION POSED ON: 08 December 2003
What type of skills and experience should a CIO have? Should they lean more to the business or the technical side?

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The CIO role is essentially a technologist and a business leader. There is no perfect formula for the mix and your personal skills and motivation are as important as your business knowledge and experience. You have got to be able to influence the other C-level executives in your organization and collaborate at the highest levels. If you don't provide leadership then IT won't go forward in your organization.

There's no denying that your experience is important and it is unlikely that someone from purely a technical background could do the job well. Some business experience could be useful, particularly in critical "front-office" areas such as sales or customer service. I have "interned" new application hires within the relevant business areas to give them the best perspective. By the time you reach CIO you must have a good rounded commercial perspective and be able to see IT (costs and benefits) in the context of the companies overall performance. The challenge as CIO is that one has to cover all aspects of the business so experience in many different application projects (especially implementation) is likely to be as valuable as a year or two in one operating area.

Finally -- a powerful quality has to be the continual desire for change and improvement. IT is an agent of change so you must be excited about the next opportunity if you are to move things forward. There's probably no such thing as a qualified CIO -- you're ready as soon as you get the role. As Darwin Smith, the CEO who built Kimberley-Clark, once said "I never stop trying to become qualified for the job".


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