CIOs and Business Experience, the Career Impact

I recently did a 2 part post (Part 1, Part 2) talking about CIOs and their perception of their understanding of business.  In a bit of serendipitous timing I just ran across and article, "Salary Report: IT Execs With Business Experience on the Rise"  by Linda Tucci at SearchCIO.com.  It would seem that there is some strong evidence that career success lies beyond just being technology oriented.

The article notes, "The numbers reinforce mounting anecdotal evidence, as well as industry data, indicating that an increasing number of CIOs are gaining business experience, encouraging their employees to get business experience and training business employees in IT. "  While this is an interesting and probably not a  surprising trend it begs the question - how does having business experience affect my career?

Fortunately, Tucci provides some insight to this question.  The first is a comment by Gartner (an IT research and advisory firm) analyst Ellen Kitzis who "finds a correlation between a strong business and IT connection and company performance. Among companies where the CIO does not play a strategic role, 26% are less likely to achieve their financial objectives or open new markets, according to the Gartner research."  Well if IT is now being recognized as contributing to the company's growth and performance we would logically expect to be compensated accordingly, right?

In answer to this question, Tucci quotes Chris Patrick, a consultant at Egon Zehnder International (an international executive recruiting firm) who indicates IT executives with a strong business orientation are difficult to find in the executive management ranks. "I don't talk to a single CIO who doesn't aspire to be there, but though many aspire, few are really qualified," he said. "Those that do understand business are in demand. They command high compensation." [emphasis added]

The third insight Tucci provides is from Kumud Kalia, CIO and executive vice president of customer relations at Direct Energy in regard to people who can fix processes.  "It takes someone with a process mentality first and commercial mentality second. It also requires a deep understanding of the customer. IT people can do it, but they are not naturals for the job." [emphasis added]

For me the takeaways from all of this are:

1. CIOs with a strong business orientation can lead IT to impact the company's growth and performance
2. CIOs with a strong business orientation are in demand and compensated accordingly
3. An IT only career path is not seen as a way to develop into a CIO with a strong business orientation

The bottom line is that you may want to think about taking some "detours" in your career journey into to other areas to get some real world experience.

That's my take, what do you think?

"Computing awesomeness" photo by viscousplatypus

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

• Scaling the Heights
• Critical Skills and Competencies for IT employees
• CIO Competencies
• Or the posts in the "Career Management" category