CIO Forum: Are CIOs ready to take the next step up?

Leadership skills and the ability to exert real influence on wider company strategy will be vital in the future as the role of the CIO continues to evolve from a technology-focused cost centre manager to a broader, business-focused position.

That was the conclusion of speakers at the silicon.com CIO Forum in London yesterday, who argued over the evolution of the role and the skills that will be needed by the "next-generation CIO".

JP Rangaswami, global CIO at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, worried about the continued obsession with getting a seat on the board and said credibility with, and access to, the senior executive team is more important in terms of exerting influence.

He also argued that the CIO role does not yet carry the kind of corporate responsibility and accountability that other board positions have.

"We are used to CEOs being accountable and going to jail and the same for CFOs. What does a CIO do that is going to get him sent to jail? If you want to be a 'CxO' then you have to play with the big boys and be prepared to go to jail," he said.

Phil Jones, former easyGroup CTO and founder of the iStrategy consultancy, said CIOs have a unique insight across their entire organisation and that it is up to them to exploit that.

Jones said: "What's important is to be part of the leadership team and influence the company not just in technology terms but the wider strategy. What will be most valuable are leadership skills and CIOs will have to have a very acute sense of what creates value for the organisation."

One trend that has developed is for some CIOs to move into wider executive roles such as chief operating officer (COO) and one panellist who made that move was Mike Barrett, COO at CNET Networks UK, the publisher of silicon.com.

He said there will always be the need for some CIO-type role to act as a "translator" between IT and the business but added that IT chiefs need to decide whether their future lies in technology or with the commercial side of the business.

"There needs to be this translator but there is a parting of the ways coming," he said.