For CIOs, Tech Expertise Isn't Essential

I couldn't agree more about the CMO/CIO position. Having good PM skills, a general knowledge of your area, coupled with buisness acumen will go a long way.

You've hit on something really important here, SMK, which is that CIO/CMO dialog is supposed to be key to helping CMOs become effective in today's social networking environments, where customers rule. Unless CMOs realize that and find out how to manage the interaction and analytics of social networking, they're sunk.

Finding people with very good PM skills are hard to come by now.

Crikes, you aren't kidding, scucci!  I'm seeing that a lot myself lately.  Actually it's funny but on the CMO Site there's a discussion about the need for Chief Data Officers to bridge the gap between business needs and technical knowledge.

The discussion seemed to lean towards not needing a new position as much as for the CMO and the CIO's to become better rounded; for the CMO's to learn more about I.T. and the CIO's to learn more about business.

One of the larger skills that I've seen needed for a CIO position is project management. Finding people with very good PM skills are hard to come buy now.

Getting the right balance must be tricky. There are also political considerations, I imagine. A CIO with really strong links to IT could be perceived as favoring those priorities over line-of-business ones.

Change is never easy, and this discussion has convinced me that those willing to make the leap from IT to CIO must be particularly motivated. Since typically one isn't motivated to do something one's not good at, this seems to be a reasonable state of affairs.

Thing is, the number of people motivated to make the jump from IT to CIO is probably small, making the search for the right person difficult.

I really do!! Many times I"ve seen CIO's that are more business minded that aren't very technical which makes them delegate more often.

I've also seen CIOs that were very technical at one time and tend to take more focus on their speciality than on others, because they know it better.

They need to have a blend of skills and a good view of the future.

When you begin your IT career you see a position as CIO, CTO or CSO as the terminal goal most never imaging becoming VP of sales or CEO. The vast majority of your interactions with your company center on your technical abilities to solve business problems and exploit opportunities. But you are almost always handed the issue in a neat little package. When you bring forward ideas proactively it is often not welcomed, something that is not specific to IT.

When you reach the CIO office and its 2012 you now have to operate within the broader landscape of your business and markets. These are muscles you likely never developed or at best stopped exercising years ago.

This is what makes the transition to CIO almost like starting an entirely new career or switching industries. A new CIO that needs some assistance doesn't have a "business department" to call on for help, whereas the sales department can call the CIO when they get in too deep.

I think of it like crossing a chasm on a tightrope. Leaving the stability of a technologist career to start a new career in business on the other side which can be scary even if you don't look down. So CIO's often wonder if is just easier to go back than to move forward and do their best as a CIO from the safety and familiar technologist side.

Do you think CIOs are more apt to resist letting go and delegating because the tasks they oversee are so skilled? Do you think other C-suiters are just as prone to leaving clawmarks on their old jobs once they ascend in the ranks?

Just wondering whether the nature of IT makes it tougher for CIOs who have identified with those skills to loosen their grip on the rewards of hands-on expertise.

I saw a CIO at one point worried about printer jams. At that moment I new we had a problem. Seriously.