Learn about the job of a CIO, how to become a CIO, and what qualifications one needs to succeed in this role.
What is a CIO?
Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the head of information and communications technology within a company. A CIO is responsible for running day to day IT operations and creating the strategy to use IT to create business value for the enterprise.
CIO role means different things in different organizations. In some, usually smaller organizations, the CIO is a manager of IT responsible for the smooth running of the company’s IT infrastructure. In these organizations, IT is an enabler of business but not being used as a driver of competitive advantage. In larger organizations, the CIO is a C-Suite position reporting to the CEO and answerable to the board of directors. In these organizations, the board takes a direct interest in and guides all things related to IT. In these organizations, IT plays a strategic role directly driving business as in directly shaping the business model of the enterprise.
The CIO Role’s importance is directly related to how a company uses IT – as a utility or a differentiator
What do Chief Information Officers do?
A CIO is responsible for ensuring that the organization’s information technology capability meets its business needs. A CIO analyzes business’ requirements, evaluates current IT capability, identifies gaps, and creates and implements IT projects to plug these gaps.
A CIO is also the champion of technology in the enterprise. They inform and educate the board, CEO, and their peers on the capability of emerging technologies and how they can benefit the business.
CIOs analyze how certain technologies either benefit or improve the business and its processes. Once they decide on a new technology, CIOs develop a system of integrating the technology into the necessary levels of the organization. As the use of technology increases across all industries, the demand for skilled CIOs also increases.
The responsibilities of a CIO include setting overall strategic direction for technology, planning and implementing IT projects, and coordinating key stakeholder involvement in technology decisions
How to become a chief information officer?
There is no one path to the top role in IT. CIOs are minted in many different ways – some rise up the technology ranks while others transfer from the business functions, usually operations or finance.
Needless to say, the path to the CIO role can be long and as one can imagine very competitive and arduous. If one is interested in reaching the top of the IT Career Ladder then the journey is well worth it as the CIO job is challenging, prestigious, and pays well handsomely. Even if one does not reach the C-Suite, setting your sights on this topmost role in IT can help one grow as a professional acquiring transferable skills that are in demand in any senior level position across companies and industry. The pursuit of the CIO role is well worth the trouble!
As you plan your path to the CIO role, it would be helpful to learn from others who have successfully achieved this goal. Current CIOs point to the following success factors in becoming a CIO:
- Good mentorship is critical to rising up in the organization. Find a mentor and more importantly, a sponsor – coattails matter!
- A CIO needs both superior technical and business skills
- A CIO is a business leader so focus on building leadership skills
- A C-Suite Executive must have excellent soft skills especially a CIO who must bridge the technology-business chasm. So, learn how to listen and communicate effectively if you have your eyes on the CIO role.
- While formal professional degrees are not a must, they do help. In the least, you make connections that can make all the difference in getting the job
How to Prepare for the CIO Role?
There are many resources available for an aspirant to the CIO Role from searching online to taking classes and enrolling in a degree program. First, know what you need to learn to become a CIO. Then, find practical guidance on acquiring those skills. Then, be in an environment where you can learn from those who have made it to the CIO role. Then, share your expertise to hone in your skills and get known as an expert in IT Management.
CIO Portal provides excellent resources for the CIO candidate:
- Start or join CIO Groups based upon geography or interest so you can interact with like minded peers from across the globe
- CIO Training in IT Management and key soft skills
- List your profile in the CIO Network to gain recognition as an IT Manager
- Join the CIO Community to rub elbows with over 75,000 senior IT leaders from 125+ countries across the globe
- Learn IT Management concepts and cutting edge approaches and frameworks or execute a project using the guidance, examples, case studies, and tools in the CIO Reference Library – 5,000+ curated, contextualized, categorized references on 350+ IT Management topics
Which Technical Skills Must a CIO Know?
A successful CIO is well versed in both technology and business skills. The foundation, of course, is management and leadership skills.
The following seven skills form the core of a CIO’s skillset:
- Ability to create an IT Strategy that sets the vision for the IT Organization, identifies IT Capability that is essential to meeting business requirements. An IT Strategy Template, IT Strategy Example, IT Strategy Framework, and IT Strategy Presentation can assist a CIO in preparing a strategic IT plan for their organization.
- Ability to create an e-Strategy to harness the power of digital disruption caused by the internet in the interests of the business
- Ability to create an IT Governance strategy, charter, structure, and plan so key decisions about IT are made by the right person, at the right time, and in the interest of the business. This ensures delivery of business value promised by the IT Strategy articulated above
- Ability to model the enterprise i.e. create a business driven enterprise architecture
- Ability to partner with external service providers to completement internal competencies i.e. create an IT Sourcing strategy and plan
- Ability to run error free and always available core IT Operations
- Ability to build and lead a team, collaborate with peers, engage with the CEO and the board which requires the ability to listen, communicate, coordinate, collaborate, guide, and manage. This is the core of a successful CIO Career
This list scratches the surface. Each of these skills can be broken into components.
For these and other key IT management concepts, please visit the CIO Wiki.
The CIO’s manifesto is clear and well-articulated – the role exists to use IT to create business value. This means both running a failsafe IT Operations and creating an IT Strategy to always stay ahead of the game. You cannot excel at one or the other; you must succeed at both or you will fail as the leader of technology in the enterprise.
This manifesto can be broken down into concise questions that a CIO must address:
- How to create a vision for IT?
- How to use technology as a strategic weapon?
- How to harness the power of digital disruption?
- How to stay ahead of successive waves of disruptive technologies?
- How to ensure delivery of business value?
- How to model the enterprise in support of better decision making?
- How to deploy an IT Capability that always works?
- How to extend the boundaries of the IT Organization?
- How to build and lead a team that delivers extraordinary results?
These questions are the top layer of a CIO’s Index. This is not an exhaustive list but represents the bare minimum to succeed as a CIO. Each question can be broken down into a myriad other questions that comprise the rest of the CIO’s Index. The CIO Library is organized along the CIO’s Index so you can dive down to successive layers of clarity and practicality.