Trends in CIO hiring: The road to the C-suite passes through operations

Heidrick & Struggles

“The history of the CIO as a deep technologist who has spent a long career coming up directly through the technology organization and staying focused in that one tower isn’t necessarily the current profile of what CEOs and leadership teams are seeking in the current state of the CIO,” Kay Fuhrman, Partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles told the audience at CIO Perspectives in November, 2015. “It’s certainly a technical leader, but one who has great context across the business and may have had a mix of experiences in consulting, in operations and really has taken an active role to build relationships with the business and create business partnerships,” she added.

“As time goes on, those who have developed the capabilities around innovation, as well as developing teams that can support that model, will be … the future folks who step into these new roles,” said Fuhrman.

Another trend for the future is CIOs sitting on boards, says Furman. “Previously, the vast majority of board profiles for public and private boards were, first, a sitting CEO, second a retired CEO, third, a sitting CFO, fourth, a recently retired CFO — that’s 95%…. [That] is really beginning to shift in such a way that [CIOs] become potential candidates for board seats given the emphasis on [technology] topics in the boardroom discussions that are happening today.”

Register now to listen to Fuhrman’s CIO Perspectives presentation and learn more about the new realities in today’s CIO job market.

 

Heidrick & Struggles

“The history of the CIO as a deep technologist who has spent a long career coming up directly through the technology organization and staying focused in that one tower isn’t necessarily the current profile of what CEOs and leadership teams are seeking in the current state of the CIO,” Kay Fuhrman, Partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles told the audience at CIO Perspectives in November, 2015. “It’s certainly a technical leader, but one who has great context across the business and may have had a mix of experiences in consulting, in operations and really has taken an active role to build relationships with the business and create business partnerships,” she added.

“As time goes on, those who have developed the capabilities around innovation, as well as developing teams that can support that model, will be … the future folks who step into these new roles,” said Fuhrman.

Another trend for the future is CIOs sitting on boards, says Furman. “Previously, the vast majority of board profiles for public and private boards were, first, a sitting CEO, second a retired CEO, third, a sitting CFO, fourth, a recently retired CFO — that’s 95%…. [That] is really beginning to shift in such a way that [CIOs] become potential candidates for board seats given the emphasis on [technology] topics in the boardroom discussions that are happening today.”

Click on the link below to listen to Fuhrman’s CIO Perspectives presentation and learn more about the new realities in today’s CIO job market.