Fewer than 40% of chief information officers are
promoted from within, because of the extensive training and
development needed to groom prospects for the role.
But where there is an in-house promotion to the top IT job, the
retained intellectual property, understanding and knowledge of the
specific environment delivers big benefits for the company.
Tony Davison, recruitment director at Australian company Elan,
said that although organisations strove to develop staff internally
for a particular position, when it came to top-tier management,
business understanding was all.
"A C-level role, be it CIO, CFO or CEO, implies an individual
who is a business person first and foremost and will bring
board-level business understanding to the table, and this will be
coupled with experience in their technical field," Davison
said.
According to Davison, chief information officers come from a
range of backgrounds but usually have a postgraduate qualification
and have worked in another business before returning to the IT fold
with a broad business understanding. "Their business skills -
coupled with good technical IT experience - mean they are able to
work more effectively at the board level."
Davison said that Australian companies tended to hire for
C-level roles externally, because of the challenges involved in
developing people internally. But he pointed out that there were
huge benefits in developing staff from within.
IT consultant Peter Bateson said the progression from IT manager
to chief information officer would appear to be the natural step to
take, but not all IT managers could take it, and not all chief
information officers came from a management position.
"The difference between IT manager and CIO is that the CIO has a
greater responsibility to the business as a whole and therefore is
expected to have greater all-round business skills, communication
skills, strategy and planning skills and appreciation of how IT can
help the business to achieve its goals," he said.
"A lot of CIOs come from business management-related roles and
have had exposure to IT along the way."
IT consultancy director Bruce Henderson said organisations
typcially wouldn't even consider hiring a chief information officer
internally unless there was a considered and planned succession
strategy. He pointed out that hiring externally brought new skills
and knowledge, which is critical in an innovation-focused role.
"An IT manager will only be offered a CIO role if there is
already a serious plan in place to evolve into the role on a
structured and timely basis, or if the IT manager is extremely
talented," Henderson said.
Michael Crawford writes for Computerworld Today