CIO

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About CIO

The Chief Information Officer or CIO is a job title for the head of the information technology group within an organization. The CIO typically reports to the chief executive officer. In military organizations, they report to the commanding officer or commanding general of the organization.

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The prominence of this position has risen greatly as information technology has become a more important part of business. The CIO may be a member of the executive board of the organization, but this is dependent on the type of organization.

No specific qualification is typical of CIOs in general; every CIO position has its own specific job description. In the past, many had degrees in computer science, software engineering, or information systems, but this is by no means universal. Many were technical staff. More recently CIOs' leadership capabilities, business acumen and strategic perspectives have taken precedence over technical skills. It is now quite common for CIOs to be appointed from the business side of the organization.

Due to the short tenure of many CIOs, CIO is sometimes facetiously ascribed the backronym of "career is over." One recent survey shows an average turnover rate of 5.7 years.

The CIO role has in some cases been expanded to become the chief knowledge officer. The CIO role is also sometimes used interchangeably with the chief technology officer role, although they may be slightly different. When both positions are present in an organization, the CIO is generally responsible for processes and practices supporting the flow of information, whereas the CTO is generally responsible for technology infrastructure.

Chief Information Officer (CIO) is a job title commonly given to the person in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals. As information technology and systems have become more important, the CIO has come to be viewed in many organizations as a key contributor in formulating strategic goals. Typically, the CIO in a large enterprise delegates technical decisions to employees more familiar with details. Usually, a CIO proposes the information technology an enterprise will need to achieve its goals and then works within a budget to implement the plan.
Typically, a CIO is involved with analyzing and reworking existing business processes, with identifying and developing the capability to use new tools, with reshaping the enterprise's physical infrastructure and network access, and with identifying and exploiting the enterprise's knowledge resources. Many CIOs head the enterprise's efforts to integrate the Internet and the World Wide Web into both its long-term strategy and its immediate business plans.

  1. Mentioned In 11 Articles

  2. CIOs as Business Leaders

    Explore Article ITworld (Jan 29 2010) CEO Leadership

    ...heir processes, which we do because we support them all. Given that, it is certainly possible for a CIO or senior IT leader to run aspects of an acquisition focused on business processes, not just on IT ... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CEO   Claudio Abreu   Bayer

  3. CIOs as Business Leaders

    Explore Article thestandard.com (Jan 29 2010) CEO Leadership

    ...nd some CIOs already have become CEOs, IT isn't widely recognized as a ... CIOs as Business Leaders CIO Executive Council, CIO01.29.2010 Tags * Business & Finance * IDGNS * IT Management * IT strategy Co... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CEO   Comments   Claudio Abreu

  4. 'Why can't CIOs be CEOs?'

    Explore Article ciol.com (Jan 22 2010) CEO Leadership

    ...is in a different position. Every CXO has his own function and domain, be it a CFO, or a CMO. But a CIO knows all implications of a business. I would say – why can't CIOs be CEOs or business leaders? IT ... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CMO   CFO   CIO

  5. What CIOs Get Wrong About Emerging Technology

    Explore Article infoworld.com (Dec 16 2009) CEO Leadership

    ...e by one, out of the corporate network into its world. CIOs have to manage that. In the past, the CIO's role has been deciding what services and what software he is going to make available to the users... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CEO   Google   Steve Jobs

  6. The Truth About CIO Tenure

    Explore Article The Voice of IT Management (Dec 13 2009) CEO Leadership

    ...ever say "Wait until next year," because that year often doesn't come for them. Everyone knows that CIO stands for Chief Information Officer, but in the early 1990s, it stood for something disparaging--"Career Is Over"--due to their purport... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   COO   CEO   CFO

  7. The truth about CIO tenure

    Explore Article itworldcanada.com (Dec 10 2009) CEO Leadership

    ...ever say "Wait until next year," because that year often doesn't come for them. Everyone knows that CIO stands for Chief Information Officer, but in the early 1990s, it stood for something disparaging --"Career Is Over"-- due to their purpo... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   COO   CEO   CFO

  8. Working-tips: Five ways for a CIO to become invaluable to the CEO

    Explore Article working (Nov 27 2009) CEO Leadership

    ...cal value and support. Jason Hiner: The pressures on today's CEOs are enormous ... This episode of CIO Sanity Savers share a few ideas about how CIOs can best provide their CEOs with critical value and ... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CEO   CIO

  9. Time to raise the cio's game

    Explore Article Articles by McKinsey Quarterly (Nov 9 2009) CEO Leadership

    Time to raise the cio's game ...Respondents perceive a gap between the ... Business Technology, Strategy article, Time to raise the CIO's game In This Article * Exhibit 1: Heads of IT in Europe are less likely to report to CEOs than IT... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CIO

  10. Survey: More Companies Hiring CSOs

    Explore Article thestandard.com (Oct 29 2009) CEO Leadership

    ...the big takeaways from the seventh-annual Global Information Security survey, which CSO and CIO magazines conducted with PricewaterhouseCoopers earlier this year. Some 7,200 business and techn... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CIO

  11. Why the CIO Needs to Be a Duck-Billed Platypus - John Sviokla - HarvardBusiness.org

    Explore Article Voices (Sep 29 2009) Career Management , CEO Leadership

    Why the CIO Needs to Be a Duck-Billed Platypus - John Sviokla - HarvardBusiness.org ...nsurance company support the work of claims and the other line functions. But at a retail bank, the CIO runs a big part of the operating business — he or she is the vice president of manufacturing for a ... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CIO   HarvardBusiness.org Daily Alert

  12. My Keys to Career Success: Former Gillette Ceo's Advice for ...

    Explore Article CIO.com (Jul 29 2007) CEO Leadership

    My Keys to Career Success: Former Gillette Ceo's Advice for ... ...us specific advice for CIOs who'd like to be CEOs and for IT leaders who'd like to make the move to CIO. CIO: You praise the value of mentors. What advice do you have for aspiring leaders on the care and feed... (Read Full Article)

    Comment on Article Mentions:   CEO   Chairman   Kraft Foods

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