CIOs Need Business Unit Management Experience

Experienced IT practitioners, including current chief information officers (CIOs), must target 2008 to begin acquiring at least one or two years of non-IT business unit management experience if they wish to viably pursue new CIO opportunities emerging in 2009 or 2010, according to Gartner, Inc.

“For the past few years we have detected some intriguing CIO hiring trends: CIO candidates are not required to have formal technology-oriented backgrounds but they must be able to show that they have managed a non-IT business unit,” said Ken McGee, an analyst and Gartner Fellow.

Gartner spoke with the heads of IT recruitment at four of the largest professional search firms in the world. On a combined basis, these firms place approximately half of all Global 1000 CIOs in any given year.

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

CEOs are also now looking for CIO candidates that have business unit management experience. They want CIOs that have run a department other than IT. Gartner does not infer that formal technical education and training is no longer important. However, McGee said, “For some time, we have believed that CIOs needed business experience as well. Now we have discovered that leading recruitment executives report business unit management experience to be an actual requirement of chief executives looking for CIOs.”

The IT recruiters noted that experience in rolling out ERP systems meant that many CIOs had particularly good knowledge across the whole range of activity within their businesses. Many have reached the position where they are equipped to take on broader, business responsibilities. Gartner believes that many will want to take on non-IT responsibilities or to leave IT and assume responsibility for businesses that they have recently become experts in.