How CIOs are like poker players, becoming CEO and more

Most of all seize opportunities. I got where I am today through identifying opportunities and championing them - through sticking my head out of the sand and saying, 'That is a good idea and if no one else wants to make it work, I will'. Initiative coupled with luck will get you where you want to be no matter what the role.

Technically, you need to firmly understand IT operations, project management and core methodology and best practice. These skills will be your Bible no matter what company you work in.

Is the role of CIOs changing? How?
I don't really think the role of the CIO has changed - how we perform that role and our understanding of the role has changed, though. There are two converging forces coming together: a misconceived notion that the business is becoming more technology-aware and self-sufficient in determining their needs; and the idea that CIOs understand business processes better than they used to.

The challenge here is not to be led by a business that believes they understand technology because their kids have mobile phones and Wii's but at the same time to acknowledge that there is an increasing awareness of basic technology throughout the organisation.

The reality now is that IT is the only area of the business that can see all business units and how they operate at a horizontal level, by way of understanding system integration. CIOs and IT are becoming the process, integration and data experts for the business and this will lead to further responsibilities outside of the pure technology remit.

I would like to say these days CIOs are more appreciated and are taken more seriously at the board level, although through personal experience this is just lip service, placation and window dressing. In most organisations whether a CIO is on the board or not they are still underappreciated, not taken seriously and are seen as an outsider to the rest of the company. I want it to change, am trying to, but like global warming I seem powerless to do anything about it.

Do CIOs make good CEOs?
No, not inherently. But then again CEOs would make terrible CIOs - by comparison a CIO would make a better CEO than the other way around. The one exception is in technology-oriented companies.

For most CIOs the business acumen and sales and marketing skills needed to become a CEO are too much to take on. There is a route to the top table and that is through an emerging cluster of administrative functions called shared services.

I am seeing CIOs take charge of shared services in organisations where those services include most back-office functions apart from finance. In these cases CIOs can make the transition to the top role more easily.