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Yet, for all of our advances over the last 20 years, there are still companies and industries where the CIO role lags behind its true potential. Where IT is part of the company´s end product or service, there is usually an aggressive IT leadership approach to enabling and shaping business value. Where IT is not a critical component, there isn´t that same pressure, and therefore many CIOs are slow to push the boundaries of their role and what IT can do. These companies will fall behind.

When I consider the progress we´ve made, I think of one of the best pieces of professional advice I ever received. It was from David Packard, one of the founders of Hewlett-Packard, who said, "Recognize, reward and compensate your people on where you want to be, not where you are today, and they will get you there.‚Äù This is an advice I encourage all IT leaders to take to heart.

I don´t think the CIO role will split, be absorbed or disappear. We will need CIOs to be the general thought leaders and coordinators of business technology. But I do think some of the accountability for IT strategy will be shared with our business peers. That´s the best thing that could happen, because it means that even more of our people will be adept at applying technology for advantage over our competitors.

While the CIOs of the future will continue to be accountable for most of the work we generally associate with the position today, they will also need to be prepared to take on expanded leadership accountabilities. They may be leaders of enterprisewide shared services organizations, business process outsourcing departments, or change management and customer relationship management functions. It´s a logical leap: My leadership team at Marriott has a mixture of knowledge and skills with technology, consulting, MBAMBA and finance backgrounds. It´s a business team. Those who want to be the next CIO must step up, jump in and offer to help people in other areas of the company where their skills fit in. Our company expects that from us. Alles zu MBA auf CIO.de

To support their expanded business roles, CIOs of tomorrow must create new ways of sourcing, developing and retaining top talent for their teams. Gen X, Gen Y, and Tweeners are coming into the company with an intuitive grasp of technology that they will likely break most traditional business molds. Thats a phenomenal power that has to be harnessed and directed in the right way to make the company grow. If we include their thinking in our business processes now, we will likely find ourselves steps ahead of our competitors.