IT Employment

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.