More benefits
- Most of your internal customers are operational staff. When most of your technology users are part of operations, reporting to the CEO or the operations side of the business gives lots of credence to your position.
- Helps prepare a CIO to become a CEO. More and more CEOs are coming from the CIO position as companies become more technically oriented. Working directly for a strong CEO helps you develop new skills that are needed if and when you decide to seek the top position in a company.
- Provides the CIO exposure to the board of directors. This may not seem important but it is. The higher you go in an organisation, the more you need to be able to communicate at a high level and present your ideas for improvement. Bigger initiatives require more dollars and tougher cost justification. As the CIO, you are in the -big leagues" now, so you need to start getting comfortable with your board of directors.
- The CIO should be an "operations advocate."
When both the operations departments and the IT department report to the same executive manager, it allows differences to be managed more effectively by the senior manager. For example, because one company president acted as my mentor, rather than getting confrontational with a regional operations manager, I could use the president to position controversial issues so that IT was always viewed as an -operations advocate" or -operations partner" and not an adversary.
Position yourself as well as you can
In terms of a CIO's career, one of the most crucial reasons I've outlined is that CIOs looking to move up to the CEO perch, and those in a CIO role where they're making major decisions that affect corporate structure, need to be able to step right into the CEO's office.
The CIO has to be aware from the start on how to position the technology of the company to support many new initiatives the company may want to take. Having a direct relationship with the chief executive is vital.
In one of my prior CIO roles, I reported to the company president and it was by far the best move for me. Reporting to the CFO, a visionary but a poor manager, would have been very difficult in that situation. In reporting to the president, I had the support I needed, was kept informed of strategic plans, learned a lot, and was close enough to the CEO to be exposed to what went on in the CEO office.
The point is that you should try to report to the appropriate senior executive in relation to the tech leadership role you're taking on. Considerations you want to evaluate include:
- Strategic initiatives planned by the company
- Changes you need to make and support needed
- Ability to learn from your manager
- How the position and reporting structure are viewed in the company
- Company growth (high growth means lots of change)
- Personality compatibility
- Positioning yourself for career advancement
It's undisputed that strong CIOs normally excel no matter whom they report to because they always know how to get -early warning" news on new initiatives, and they network well within the company at all levels. Yet, if there is an opportunity to make the decision, your career and your professional achievements at the company will be greatly enhanced by reporting to someone above the CFO level.
Mike Sisco is the CEO of MDE Enterprises and has been an IT manager and CIO for more than 20 years. His company is dedicated to the training and education of IT managers to help them achieve more success.
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