Why do we have to tell CIO's that they need to know the business?

I have written in the past about security people needing to know the business side of the house.  But when I saw this article about career advice for the CIO and how the CIO needs to be business savvy, I really had to throw out a big "DUH". 
 
Now don't get me wrong; I am not disparaging Ms. Chatham on this point.  What I am saying is that it drives me nuts that the point even has to be made.  How on God's green Earth can a "C" level position in a company NOT know business and think he / she is going to make it?  A CFO is supposed to know financial AND business issues.  A COO is supposed to know operational AND business issues.  Why isn't the CIO supposed to know IT AND business issues?
 
Well, now that I think about it, I guess I actually do know the reason the point has to be made: because so many CIO's up to this point have come directly from the technical side of the house, and they have found it hard to relate to the business world when their world has been technical for so long.  CIO is NOT a technical position.  Yes, it is good to know the ins and outs of the technical world so there can be a realistic expectation of what the techies can do.  But a person at this level should be way past their days of "rack-and-stack" and script writing.  It is like an old boss asked me when I was pining for a management job: "Are you ready to give up your technical knowledge?"  It is true.  Very few management jobs in IT involve technical tasks.  And if you are going to become a CIO, you should have had at least a couple of management jobs before now.
 
Of course, when you throw a former pure management type into the mix who is not technology savvy, then you run into other problems.  And though I can't speak for every company, this seems to be why companies are either dropping their CIO positions or creating de facto CIO positions with different titles.  There are just too few people who can fit into that type of role, no matter their background.

Why do we have to tell CIO's that they need to know the business?

I have written in the past about security people needing to know the business side of the house.  But when I saw this article about career advice for the CIO and how the CIO needs to be business savvy, I really had to throw out a big "DUH".  Now don't get me wrong; I am not disparaging Ms. Chatham on this point.  What I am saying is that it drives me nuts that the point even has to be made.  How on God's green Earth can a "C" level position in a company NOT know business and think he / she is going to make it?  A CFO is supposed to know financial AND business issues.  A COO is supposed to know operational AND business issues.  Why isn't the CIO supposed to know IT AND business issues?

Why do we have to tell CIO's that they need to know the business?

I have written in the past about security people needing to know the business side of the house.  But when I saw this article about career advice for the CIO and how the CIO needs to be business savvy, I really had to throw out a big "DUH".  Now don't get me wrong; I am not disparaging Ms. Chatham on this point.  What I am saying is that it drives me nuts that the point even has to be made.  How on God's green Earth can a "C" level position in a company NOT know business and think he / she is going to make it?  A CFO is supposed to know financial AND business issues.  A COO is supposed to know operational AND business issues.  Why isn't the CIO supposed to know IT AND business issues?

The H-1B Battle: The war within

Owners and managers of all types of companies will say in secret that they prefer employees who are recent immigrants or foreign nationals over natural born American citizens.The owner of a construction company says that he legally pays a Mexican subcontractor more than his own American workers because their work is consistently impeccable.  When he hires American workers, regardless of how much he pays them, they may show up or they might not on any given day.  Their work may be poor or excellent depending on their mood.  One outstanding American worker demanded twice the normal salary and worked well for two weeks, then disappeared with over $500 worth of materials, never to be heard from again.  Now that housing demand has lowered, he has a painful decision to make.  He can either fire the Mexican subcontractors (legal immigrants) and stay in business or fire his own crew of American workers and risk losing his business entirely.The owner of an optometrist chain confided that he calls CIS to find new immigrants because they will work better than the average American.  One day a store manager who makes a considerably large salary came to him and pointed to a bead of sweat on her face and said, "See this - I have to go home".The air conditioning was not working properly that day and the temperature was slightly warmer than average.  An owner of a large chiropractic clinic said that he has paid his office workers very well including year-end bonuses, and they are happy to work for him.  He is a very nice guy and makes an effort to treat people very well.  Last year he gave some of them a business credit card to pay for office supplies.  Then he discovered that they have been using the credit cards as a personal line of credit.One worker actually asked him to increase the credit limit because she is going to New York on vacation.  He calculated that, on a slow month, some of them were making a larger income than he was making.  Now, he too is looking for new immigrant employees.An owner of a chain of boutiques said that on four separate occasions his American employees brought their miniature dogs to work.  When asked why they brought their dogs to work, they replied that they had no other place to bring them.  He also complained that he was not sure if they would show up to work on any given day.  Afterwards, he began hiring new immigrants and had no problems with them.In engineering, teams of American contract engineers are often pitted against teams of Indian outsource engineers.  An engineering manager once pointed to the charts and asked why do the Indian engineers consistently outperform the American engineers doing the same work.Each one of these employers said that they would prefer to hire Americans, but it is just bad business.  They said that American workers are better workers when they are in the mood, but most have a sense of entitlement to things like smoking breaks and conducting personal business on company time.It is easy to see why American companies prefer H-1B engineers over American engineers.  They cost less. They work harder. They do not complain or ask for anything.It can be argued that American companies have lost their civic responsibility because CEOs will heartlessly lay off workers while retaining their 8-figure salaries and bonuses.  It can be argued that if corporations have no loyalty to their employees, why should any worker have enthusiasm for their employer?   It can be argued that corporations are not making an effort to recruit engineers in other states or to train engineers in new skills, instead they prefer to pay lobbyists to influence congress to increase the H-1B cap.  It can be argued that it is unconstitutional to give American jobs to foreign nationals.  It can be argued that American corporations wield too much influence over congress and voters wield too little.But it can also be argued that American workers have grown a sense of entitlement and are beginning to lose their work ethic.Travel through China and you will see so many people working very hard.  They make very little money but they work with extreme enthusiasm.  Obviously when people grow up poor and are given a chance to build a better life, they will work harder, and when people grow up spoiled they will have a sense of entitlement and a poor work ethic.But what happened to the American middle-class work ethic?  Are these isolated experiences or are we witnessing the gradual fall of the American empire?  We can blame the media for creating role-models such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, or we can blame ourselves and endeaver to work harder.The 2008 H-1B battle will begin soon.  Engineers should get politically active in this election cycle.  American engineers should use their internet skills to campaign against those who are working against them and campaign in favor of those who are working for them.  American voters need to wrestle back control of their own government, but maybe first we all need to pause and look within.Stay tuned  to Computerworld for detailed political coverage of the H-1B and other engineering-related issues.

The H-1B Battle: The war within

Owners and managers of all types of companies will say in secret that they prefer employees who are recent immigrants or foreign nationals over natural born American citizens.  The following are anecdotes from interviews with some local businessmen and women in South Florida.The owner of a construction company says that he pays a team of Mexican-American subcontractor who employs recent legal immigrants more than his own American workers because their work is consistently impeccable.  When he hires American workers, regardless of how much he pays them, they may show up or they might not on any given day.  Their work may be poor or excellent depending on their mood.  One outstanding American worker demanded twice the normal salary and worked well for two weeks, then disappeared with over $500 worth of materials, never to be heard from again.  Now that housing demand has lowered, he has a painful decision to make.  He can either keep the Mexican-American subcontractors and stay in business or keep his own crew of American workers and risk losing his business entirely.

The H-1B Battle: The war within

Owners and managers of all types of companies will say in secret that they prefer employees who are recent immigrants or foreign nationals over natural born American citizens.  The following are anecdotes from interviews with some local businessmen and women in South Florida.The owner of a construction company says that he pays a team of Mexican-American subcontractor who employs recent legal immigrants more than his own American workers because their work is consistently impeccable.  When he hires American workers, regardless of how much he pays them, they may show up or they might not on any given day.  Their work may be poor or excellent depending on their mood.  One outstanding American worker demanded twice the normal salary and worked well for two weeks, then disappeared with over $500 worth of materials, never to be heard from again.  Now that housing demand has lowered, he has a painful decision to make.  He can either keep the Mexican-American subcontractors and stay in business or keep his own crew of American workers and risk losing his business entirely.