CIO vs IT Manager

The main problem is if non IT background CEO than they are always try to cut IT budget.

While not IT-specific, Marcus Buckingham's book "One Thing You Need to Know" does a good job at distinguishing managers vs. leaders, including business's need for both. The book's a good read, but in short, managers play chess - they manipulate tasks & people (based on their strengths) to get optimal results. Leaders quench people's fears about the future by giving them a tangible vision of where the company is going.

I'm an IT/BT Director at an ICT SME/B and report directly to the CEO. I have seen setups where an IT manager reports directly to the CEO.....!! So I do agree that it does depend on where you fall on the pecking order which is dependent on how an Org is structured. This also does bring to light the issue of the nomenclature adapted by an Org for the various posts in the sense that the post of the IT Boss could be named CIO,Manager,Director etc and still play the same role. What I have personally found out is that when IT Leadership reports directly to the CEO and is included in executive/management planning and decision making then ICT/BT gets to have key input in the strategic direction of the Org which is pertinent in todays economy. Recently I have observed that Large enterprises seem to be more inclined to designating the IT Boss the CIO title and in most places this character will report to the CEO. I don't have an issue with titles per se ,to me what matters is how and whether IT Leadership is positioned to play a strategic role in business.

I would add that CIO's also look to the future and the managers are more in the now. CIO's also interact with employees outside of the IT department and managers mostly deal internally. As was mentioned previously, size of the organization does factor into things as well.

I've been in both positions. The differences are reactive vs. proactive and strategy vs. break fix. An IT Manager is only as good as the C person he/she reports to. If it is the CFO he'she is. for the most part, generally doomed to a break fix and reactive career. Reporting to a COO or CEO the IT manager may have leverage regarding Service level's and may be able to persuade them periodically in the "right" direction.

A CIO has a completely different set of marching orders. The CIO is on an equal or in some cases higher seat in the overall command structure. In this case technology has the ability to drive the business with a vision. With astrategy and a vision teh IT staff now have worthwhile tasks and sink their teethj into and will actually over deliver. Ultimately this allows the business to actually grow both in terms of profit and employee mind share.

The CIO will also have the ability to delegate the proper tasks to the properly educated and trained people. This is important as the the other C's in the group have to learn how to run technology operations on the fly. A CIO already comes equipped with the knowledge and tools.

Simple issues are solved easily or simply and don't become stumbling blocks for IT and business. The simple issues tend to give the CFO, COO or CEO a hard time when trying to make decisions as they simply con not wrap their arms around the issue visually or intellectually as they don't "really" get how entrenched the IT stuff is into their business. A mole hill becomes a mountain and the overall strategy and vision die with a whimper as everyone will be pushed into a reactive mode.

A CIO also understands how to speak different professional languages where as an IT manager may not and usually has not mastered these skills as yet. The CIO can assist uin growing the IT Manager to gain and grasp these traits.

Finally, a CIO understands how to incentivise each of the other C people to allow his needs to come to fruition.

These are my thoughts on the matter....

CIO will evaluate the technology with business needs and Managers will ensure the successful Implementation of technology and its performance.

as previously stated, a small IT team (5-10 people - to be found in small-medium companies)) will usualy be led by an IT manager. When it comes to large corporations with a large IT structure (50+), different IT departments )communication, security, networking, helpdesk, programming, erp ...) you have a CIO overloking the corporate policy, corporate objectives, and each of the mentioned teams would be led by a manager or supervisor).
Of course, a CIO has much more responsibility, much more complexity to handle.

In a small IT department (<5), typically in a small company (<100), it realy doesn't matter what title is given to the guy in charge of IT. Still, the most appropriate title is IT Manager, or possible, if he's been there for a while, Director. However, the Director is title is mostly honorary, or necessary for political reasons.

When you start getting into larger companies with multiple IT groups, then typcially each group will have its own Manager which reports to the Director of IT. This group is likely to report the Chief Financial Office, or whatever title is given to the person who manages the accounting side. If the politics play out differently, they could report to the President and/or CEO.

At the enterprise level, where there are at least dozens of employees in IT, among many different departments, usually requiring multiple Directors to manage the Managers, then there is likely also an executive. This will either be a Vice-President of Technology, who will report to the CFO, or possibly the CEO, or an actual Chief Information Officer. They may also have a Chief Technology Officer, and a Chief Security Officer, and software development firms will usually have a Chief Software Architect (see Microsoft).

At this level, the responsibitly of the manager in an IT group is to manage the personel in that specific group. A Director manages the managers and handles budgetary duties. An executive or a "C" type is supposed to take the most strategic view of the organization, clearly understand the business requirements and facilitate interaction with the other departments. They'll set the agenda for strategic projects and technologies and significantly influence the selection of vendors.

Note that it is only in the largest organizations that it gets broken out like this. You get the specialization because there are so many people. In the smaller organizations, each person has to perform multiple types of duties which are usually split out in the larger organizations. So a small company's IT manager will have to do things that a larger company would only use a CIO for just because they are the only person to do them.

Generally speaking, a CIO manages a corporate's IT efforts. The CIO usually reports to the CFO, or sometimes the CEO. Corporate enterprises require millions of dollars in IT investment, and usually employ dozens of IT personnel.

An IT director is usually found in smaller to midsize enterprises. Thier IT budgets are usually in the hundreds of thousands and not 10s of millions. An IT Director can be both a working manager, or a pure manager. His staff can be a small as 4 or 5, or as large as a few dozen.

Business, like military, uses a rank structure though it may not be as directly recognized as the military. Generally:

CIO reports to CEO
Upper IT Managers reports to CIO
Lower IT Managers report to Upper IT Managers
Techies report to Lower IT Managers

If you want to be a CIO, be a Techie or IT Manager and work your way up the ladder.

C-level positions are business driven, and management of information is not confined to IT, but also contains communication strategies, hard copy information, information flow, security, organisation, auditing, and many more activities beyond the scope of IT management. This not to diminish the vital role of heading an effective IT department, but the positions are clearly divided between accountability (CIO) and responsibility (IT).

In a large organization, the CIO and the IT Manager are different people. In fact, the CIO may have many IT Managers reporting to many IT Directors, depending on the scope of duties within the organization. CIOs in large organizations are responsible for planning, strategy and alignment with the business. IT Managers are typically responsible for just one area (sometimes more) - like programming, operations, support, training, etc.

In a small organization, CIOs typically do not exist. Planning and strategy may be performed by an IT Manager or IT Director who typically wear many different hats and perform multiple functions, not just one or two.

The CIO is the person who formulates the strategic focus,direction and planning for the entire enterprise.

The IT manager is responsible for executing his piece of the enterprise. Most IT managers are not responsible for more than his/her local organization.

Most CIOs report to the CEO or President and have absolute authority and responsibility. IT managers report to the CIO and take direction from him/her.

An IT Manager will build a road through a forest on time and within budget

The CIO makes sure the road is in the right forest

It took a long time for us to convince administration that we needed to spend the money to hire one.

It took a lot of courage and logic to get them to agree that an IS background was worth more to the organization than another MBA wannabe.

Then it took about a year of searching for just the right candidate. What we got was a CIO that had come up through the ranks and successfully done what we wanted in a much larger setting.

So how did we find this jewel? We offered competative salary (almost), and an opportunity to set the adgenda on future growth. Like most upper management, it's more about fulfillment than money.

He is not so far removed from his roots that he has forgotten where he came from, and so has a slight bias towards IS, but at the same time, he lives in the management arena, so it doesn't always go our way either.

Which means that he bends over backwards for his peers when it doesn't matter, and stands with us when it does. By doing so, his gives us a voice in the C-Level we didn't have before and fosters customer satisfaction we couldn't obtain on our own and gives management demonstrable responsiveness they felt they were missing.

I don't know what would have happened if we had gotten a stooge in here. But luckily, we had time and was able to weed out the chaff and selected the right guy for the job.

There is a significant difference between the CIO and IT Manager.

THE IT MANAGER
Manages all the IT department similar to a HR Manager manages HR. Anything IT related is controlled by the IT Manager.

THE CIO
Controlls the Data or Information within the organisation. Essentially the 1s & 0s. It is their responsibility to ensure the information gets to where it needs to go whether internally or externally to the company, electronically or hardcopy is irrelevant.

In many companies the IT Manager is the CIO but larger companies the CIO could be a seperate dedicated position. The IT Manager and CIO are required to work closely together for the IT structure to be successful. One point that was raised earlier is that CIOs demand much more money than IT Manager's.