Doug cormany may be the prototypical CIO. He started in inventory control at the Walt Disney Co. in 1972, and 20 years later left to climb the IT ladder at three other companies. Last May he was hired as vice president and CIO at Spherion, the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based staffing company. And when this job ends, Cormany will move on to the next challenge?but he won’t move out of IT. "I’ve never even thought about leaving IT," he says. "I like what I’m doing. I enjoy being able to use IT to make a difference across the entire enterprise."

And so, it seems, do a lot of other CIOs. Contrary to suggestions that huge numbers of CIOs are being lured from outside IT and that incumbent CIOs are eager to leave for business-side management opportunities, CIO’s "The State of the CIO" survey shows that many of today’s chief information officers are just like Cormany?they’re influenced by IT, and they want to stay in IT.

Which isn’t to say there aren’t marketing vice presidents who have made great CIOs, or that there aren’t a slew of former CIOs now among the COO or CEO ranks. But when asked which functional area had the greatest impact on them, the vast majority of survey respondents said IT. And when asked what role they’d like next, 44 percent of CIOs surveyed said...CIO.

The Trail Starts in IT

Executive recruiters who specialize in CIO placement agree with these findings, arguing that the statistics speak to market trends. In the mid-1990s, many CIOs did come from outside IT, says Phillip Schneidermeyer, president of Talent Intelligence Agency, a Darien, Conn.-based recruitment company. "In those days, people thought it was the business-side experience that mattered more in a CIO." But since then even the most IT-grounded CIOs have refined their business and management skills to MBA level, he says, so that CEOs don’t need to import business acumen for the IT organization. Also, CEOs have come to need more high-level IT counsel in decisions about supply chain management and outsourcing. CIOs today need to be more technically savvy than ever?but with a broad view of how it helps the enterprise, Schneidermeyer says. "They still have to know the different functional areas, but they don’t need to have lived in them."

And although there continue to be notable CIOs moving into CEO roles?former FedEx CIO Dennis Jones at Commerce One made the leap last year from CIO to CEO?in today’s economy there are fewer COO and CEO opportunities available. Consequently, some CIOs may be sticking to the IT career path just because they have fewer options. But a major factor, according to "The State of the CIO" survey, is that many CIOs share Cormany’s view?they like being CIOs.