CIO magazine?s study, ?The State of the CIO,? set out to explore trends of the CIO role. Our survey findings highlight the fact that the CIO?s time is spent more on strategy than pure technology. CIOs spend the bulk of their time meeting with other senior executives and managing IT staffs of 70+ employees on average.

CIOs must rely on a range of skills?including communication, business savvy, management and technical proficiency?to continue to elevate the role of CIO in the organization. Among the keys to CIO success are:

Communication. CIOs spend a bulk of their time meeting?whether with the executive team, their IT staff or business partners. The ability to clearly communicate ideas, give direction and negotiate will grow in importance to elevating the role of the CIO in organizations.

Hiring/retention. The CIO?s ability to recognize, cultivate and retain IT talent will continue to be tested, regardless of an easing labor market. While a greater number of candidates are applying for jobs, finding qualified personnel with the right balance of skills and experience in key technology areas, including database management and application development, will continue to be a challenge.

Strategic thinking. Understanding the company?s business strategy and its competitive landscape add greatly to the CIO?s ability to bring value to the organization. Additionally, strong business sense will help the CIO develop good relationships with the other Os.

Highlights of the study include:

• CIOs aren?t aiming for the corner office. Almost half prefer to be CIO in the next phase of their career while only 20% want to move on to CEO.
• Staffing and getting key skills are biggest challenges.
• Communication skills and strategic planning are more critical to success than technical proficiency.
• Budget issues persist.
• The CIO?s job doesn?t change much from large to small companies in terms of skills and how they spend their time.
• For the most part, CIOs do not have strong business backgrounds. Over the course of their careers, CIOs have worked most frequently in IT, consulting, administration, customer service, sales and research, and development.
• CIOs are responsible for corporate IT (vs. a division?s IT only), and close to half of IT heads report to the CEO.
• CIOs listed lack of key staff/skill sets/retention, inadequate budget and prioritization of budget, and lack of time for strategic thinking/planning as the biggest hurdles or barriers to their effectiveness.
• Ability to communicate, understand business processes and operations, and strategic thinking and planning are the three skills that are most pivotal for the CIO?s success.