Revisiting the CIO Reporting to the CFO Fri 27 Apr 07

Back in October I talked about the CIO reporting to the CFO.  A few days later I reported on a "State of the CIO" survey that Chris Koch discussed in his blog.  I suggested that the CIO really needed to report to the CEO rather than the CFO to be strategic.  Back then I said,

The difficulty is in the chicken or egg argument.  Does IT report to the CFO because it is tactical or is it tactical because it reports to the CFO?  But as Koch correctly reports, ". . . something is sure to crop up around the corner that could present an opportunity for a company that uses IT tactically to start using it strategically. Bury your CIO inside finance and you'll be sure to miss that opportunity."

Last week Brian Gillooly in his CIO Nation blog gives us a Sneak Peek at "Defining the CIO" Research.

Gillooly reports that based on their survey of IT professionals, the number of CIOs reporting to the CEO is increasing which reverses a trend from a few years ago.  Gillooly reports the percentage of CIOs reporting to CFOs as:

• 2003         8%
• 2004       15%
• 2005       21%
• 2006       17%
• 2007       13%

In the past 2 years he reports that the percentage of CIOs reporting to the CEO jumped from 58% to 63%.

Frankly the percentage reporting to the CFO is much lower than I would have guessed which is encouraging as is the trends he reports.

What are you thoughts on these numbers?  Where do you believe the CIO should report?  To the CFO?  To the CEO?

If this topic was of interest, you might also like these:

• Leadership Conversations
• Let's Get Strategic!
• CIO Competencies
• Or the posts in the "Organizational Development" category