Managing IT as a Business
A Survival Guide for CEOs
Chapter One
Get the CIO on the
Executive Team
Case Study 1.1
The Chief Information Officer/Executive Reporting Relationship
At a major provider of information and other services, a new executive team
had just arrived. The new chief executive officer (CEO) commissioned a complete
review of all the company's corporate functions, with an eye toward
modernizing and streamlining them to enable and support the customer-service
teams in the field more effectively.
The review of the IT function was particularly disturbing to him because
it revealed a huge weakness and gap in his ability to propel the company forward
along the lines of his strategic plan. Without a chief information officer
(CIO), IT was fragmented, unfocused, and uncontrolled.
The new CEO knew he had to appoint a CIO who understood the company's
business issues, could build relationships with the key business-unit
leaders, and could function as a member of the leadership team. Knowing
the personalities of all the company's key executives, he also understood
that the new CIO would have to earn his way onto the leadership team. The
CEO also strug ... read full excerpt from Managing IT as a Business: A Survival Guide for CEOs ebook
