Are you a truly strategic exec?

Being a strategic CIO means two things: thinking long-term (even when there are urgent IT "fires" to put out); and thinking big-picture -- not just about your internal operations, but about transforming your whole collection of businesses, even your whole industry. So how are you doing? It turns out that most CIOs aren't as strategic as their CEO, but they're more strategic than CFOs, according to research by Egon Zehnder International, reported in CIO magazine (1 November 2007).
 
The Egon Zehnder folks -- can we just call 'em EZI, for short? -- have come up with seven levels of strategic orientation (the highest being 7):

7 = Transforms business model
6 = Redesigns business practices
5 = Improves business practices
4 = Drives to exceed goals
3 = Driven by goals
2 = Would like to make things better
1 = Fulfills assigned tasks
(Notice that the lowest level is the equivalent of "order-taker." Hint, hint.)
 
Based on more than 25,000 executive assessments, EZI says execs tend to get these average scores:
CEO: 4.3
CIO: 4.0
CFO: 3.5
 
CIOs can take some comfort in the fact that they outranked CFOs on the 'strategic-ness' scale. CFOs are mostly goal-driven and that's why they're stuck between 3 and 4. But don't take too much comfort! CIOs who truly want to be strategic players should be exceeding the CEO level and be up there in the 5, 6, and 7 level. We know that technology can not only transform business practices but whole business models and industries. And the elite CIOs -- the real business leaders -- are doing it now.
 
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Related:
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What has IT done for your customers lately?

Are you a truly strategic exec?

Being a strategic CIO means two things: thinking long-term (even when there are urgent IT "fires" to put out); and thinking big-picture -- not just about your internal operations, but about transforming your whole collection of businesses, even your whole industry. So how are you doing? It turns out that most CIOs aren't as strategic as their CEO, but they're more strategic than CFOs, according to research by Egon Zehnder International, reported in CIO magazine (1 November 2007). The Egon Zehnder folks -- can we just call 'em EZI, for short? -- have come up with seven levels of strategic orientation (the highest being 7):

Matloff vs. Aron on the loss of U.S. IT jobs to non-U.S. workers

A couple of weeks ago I moderated a panel discussion at the fall meeting of the UCLA Anderson School of Management IS Associates. The topic of discussion was the future of U.S. IT professionals in a global market, and we focused on offshore outsourcing and the H-1B visa controversy. Much of the discussion took the form of a debate between Professor Norman Matloff of the University of California at Davis, a long-time vocal critic of the H-1B visa program; and Professor Ravi Aron of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, an authority on offshore outsourcing.

Matloff vs. Aron on the loss of U.S. IT jobs to non-U.S. workers

A couple of weeks ago I moderated a panel discussion at the fall meeting of the UCLA Anderson School of Management IS Associates. The topic of discussion was the future of U.S. IT professionals in a global market, and we focused on offshore outsourcing and the H-1B visa controversy. Much of the discussion took the form of a debate between Professor Norman Matloff of the University of California at Davis, a long-time vocal critic of the H-1B visa program; and Professor Ravi Aron of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, an authority on offshore outsourcing.

Facebook vs. OpenSocial: seconds out, round one (and 1989 razor cheese)

It's IT Blogwatch: in which the OpenSocial partnership squares up against Facebook. Not to mention the cheesiest Gillette spot ever...Here's Heather Havenstein, hotfoot:MySpace and Google Inc. announced Thursday that they have joined forces to launch a new social platform complete with a set of APIs for developers to build social applications. The launch of OpenSocial by Google was expected,  but the partnership with MySpace put added weight behind Google's plans ... The OpenSocial standards are designed to evolve through contributions from the open-source community and from partners like Friendster, LinkedIn, Ning, Six Apart, Plaxo and Salesforce.com.

Facebook vs. OpenSocial: seconds out, round one (and 1989 razor cheese)

It's IT Blogwatch: in which the OpenSocial partnership squares up against Facebook. Not to mention the cheesiest Gillette spot ever...Here's Heather Havenstein, hotfoot:MySpace and Google Inc. announced Thursday that they have joined forces to launch a new social platform complete with a set of APIs for developers to build social applications. The launch of OpenSocial by Google was expected,  but the partnership with MySpace put added weight behind Google's plans ... The OpenSocial standards are designed to evolve through contributions from the open-source community and from partners like Friendster, LinkedIn, Ning, Six Apart, Plaxo and Salesforce.com.