CIO Role Growing Along with Compensation
The role of the Chief Information Officer is evolving. New research shows that CIOs are gaining influence as technology is increasingly being viewed as vital to corporate strategy. CIOs are being called to develop market knowledge while simultaneously aligning IT and business strategies to drive growth. And the CIO role is only going to get bigger as IT becomes integrated into every company.
One senior industry veteran with more thirty-five years of business, IT and telecommunications experience now consulting with executive search firm, A.E. Feldman, says CIO jobs are opening up. There has been a surge in demand for “CIO types” especially in the telecom industry.significant effort is underway to integrate multiple existing platforms, such as PDAs, Internet and desktop, but many staffs lack the expertise required to execute the high-level integration required for the smooth flow of data between various systems. Executives who have a sophisticated understanding of the requirements of systems design integration in addition to communications expertise are hot commodities.
CIOs are gaining increased creditability and assuming their positions among C-suite executives. New research shows that in today’s environment no company can exist without integrating technology into its systems. And along with tech-savvy vision, the CIO must also meet the business demands and have the skill set and interpersonal skills required in a global, consumer-driven economy. CIO.com reports that Google CIO, Douglas Merrill, says, “I think you’ll see a much higher degree of technical focus in the CIO and a higher understanding of technology in business across the C-suite. The distinction that we’re all so comfortable with “that there’s technology and there’s business” that distinction is going to vanish.”
Recent CIO polls from research firm, Gartner Inc., as reported in Business Management, show that 50% of CIOs surveyed say they now have duties outside of core technology, such as helping to craft corporate strategy. That is roughly a 20% jump from just three years ago. Additionally, more CIOs are now reporting to top executives such as CEOs, CFOs and COOs. Last year, 74% of CIOs surveyed reported to a chief executive, chief financial officer or operating chief, up from 69% in 2003, according to Gartner.
IBM CEO, Sam Palmisano, says, “The role of the CIO is at a crossroads. CIOs can once again reinvent themselves, and enhance their standing, influence and contribution to the corporation, or their role will be marginalized: setters of technology standards, managers of infrastructure…or worse, overseers of a technically savvy procurement shop.”
As their roles shift, CIO compensation also rises. CIO.com’s Annual State of the CIO study, which is based on responses from 558 heads of IT (regardless of title) from a broad range of industries and company sizes, shows that CIOs are making more money than ever before (regardless of company size). The survey also finds that more top IT execs hold the CIO title and financial services firms spend more on IT than any other industry.
