Quelle: CIO.com (USA)

A chief executive officer of a major industrial company in the U.S. heartland was speaking to an audience of chief information officers a year ago, discussing the role of the CIO in the modern corporation. In the middle of his speech, straight-faced as can be, he observed, "My CIO is probably my most essential manager. Without him, I don't know where our company would be."

The audience laughed. In fact, their laughter was more spontaneous and contagious than it was at any other time during that daylong seminar. The irony, of course, was that the attendees were completely unaware that the CEO was dead serious. For this assembly of CIOs, the idea that a CEO would call one of their number "essential" was, well, laughable. The unfunny truth is that CEOs and CIOs too often act as though they are partners in an enormously uncomfortable marriage.

Most CEOs see their CIOs as experts only in technology and service delivery, without a role to play in developing business strategy. Some other executive - the CFO, a business unit head, a sales manager- has to point the CEO in the right direction before technology become integrated with the strategic direction of the corporation.

CIOs, of course, are not blameless in allowing this perception - this breakdown in the marriage, so to speak - to take hold. Although they often say that they aspire to more strategic involvement, few technology chiefs have developed the business acumen and skills necessary to align their agenda with their company's agenda, or with the business landscape in which their company must operate. CIOs should be defining technological initiatives in terms the business understands - speeding products to market, enabling growth, and reading costs and risks. If CIOs adopted that kind of approach, top management might be inspired to take them more seriously as partners in developing the company's strategic direction.

In this article, we explore what's gone wrong between chief executives and chief technologists and suggest some ways to make the marriage work.