Special: What kind of CIO are you?

Paratrooper CIO

The paratrooper is a strong and independent outsider usually headhunted into an organisation when major change is on the agenda, and they rarely stay around for long - three to five years - once it is completed.

Platts says: "The paratrooper feels safe by being a completely self-reliant James Bond character."

One of key characteristics of the paratrooper CIO is the ability to speak with credibility and conviction about all aspects of the new industry with both members of the executive team and the wider company within a short space of time.

This also means they don't carry any of the past baggage that an insider might and so the paratrooper is able to bring a lot of external experience to bear. Of course that has a tendency to put some insiders' backs up and paratrooper CIOs often find themselves making enemies, which means the total support of the CEO is vital for this type of CIO to have any credibility and be able to bring about change.

The Leading Edge Forum research says the paratrooper is "very clear about the factors driving change and those likely to impact upon success or failure".

And for all the talk of CIOs wanting to be on the executive management board this generally doesn't matter to the paratroopers who see it as a time-consuming distraction to the main task at hand.

Part of the paratrooper's task will be organisational change and restructuring - which usually means downsizing. To help with the task the paratrooper will bring in key people they have worked with before and identify and develop the talent within the existing IT operation to build the new IT team that will take over the steady state organisation once the paratrooper's work is done.

This change from transformation to stability also requires a different type of CIO and the successor to the paratrooper will often be a professional CIO - the talented company insider who knows the business inside out.

Professional CIO profile
Executive CIO profile
Consultant CIO profile