Should CIOs be at the boardroom table?

The data for the next CIO 100 is almost completed. From an early analysis of the material supplied it  is very apparent, as you’d expect, that those CIOs that are currently driving a lot of transformation in their organisation are on some form of board at their organisation, or have a good line of communications into that board.

For this year’s CIO 100 we haven’t distinguished being on the board of directors or an executive operational board.

The leading CIOs are all working across much wider remits in the organisation than technology. At present the CIO editorial team and I are also working on a new redesigned CIO magazine and the 2011 CIO Summit and in both cases we are seeing that you cannot distinguish or sectionalise the CIO world into business, technology and leadership. From the conversations we have with CIOs it is clear that CIOs are business technology leaders. The data from the CIO 100 reveals that the organisations that understand a need for business technology leadership have a CIO that who is a business technology leader. As a result we have CIOs leading major marketing and customer retention plans, human resources programmes, supply chain, rationalisation, expansion and the drive of the organisation forwards. In every organisation technology is seen as the cornerstone of these ambitions.

When this CIO 100 is released, as Editor in Chief I hope it will ignite debate and feed discussions on the importance of CIOs being on a board and how to contribute to transformation.

As ever, your views as CIOs is always welcome and even before the 100 is released, I hope you will share your thoughts with us.