Let’s consider the letter “I” in CIO – “information”. It’s what rules everything we do. No decision is made, and very little purposeful action is taken, without information to guide us. The caretaker of information in an organization is the CIO who develops and manages the plan for how information is accumulated, organized, stored, transacted, and analyzed. As information increasingly becomes the currency of the global economy, the role of the CIO is changing and becoming more strategic because of the CIO’s unique ability to understand and manage information.
The skill sets that were once needed to manage information are also changing. CIOs have to move beyond just “managing” IT and instead towards helping the organization find a competitive advantage. Today’s economic environment requires that the CIO of the future emphasize business knowledge with technical depth, along with evangelism and leadership abilities that can be used to drive strategic corporate growth plans and increase market opportunities.
