CIOs still excluded from the boardroom

A seat in the boardroom remains elusive for most CIOs as businesses continue to exclude IT chiefs from high-level strategic planning, according to new research.

The picture is even bleaker for European companies who lag behind organisations headquartered in north America and Asia-Pacific when it comes to putting an IT executive at the top table.

The research, A Missing Competency: Boardroom IT Deficit, by public relations company Burson-Marsteller reviewed Fortune Global 500 organisations to determine those with a technology expert - either a current or former CIO - on their boards.

It is the second time the research has been carried out and, compared to the earlier 2003 findings, it showed an increase from five per cent to eight per cent in the number of organisations globally with a CIO on the board.

After Y2K and the dot-com crash, CIOs went from heroes to dogs overnight and this research shows there's still a fundamental lack of understanding of the importance of technology for businesses.

--Heidi Sinclair, European CEO at Burson-Marsteller

Yet that remains a very low number and in Europe the figure is only seven per cent with examples in the UK including HSBC, Marks & Spencer and Vodafone. That contrasts sharply with companies in some of the emerging technology markets in the Asia-Pacific region such as India which are 10 times more likely to have a CIO on the board.

The research said: "The rising economies of the east are better prepared to embrace the future and compete head-to-head with contenders from developed countries."

The study indicates that CIOs can generally expect to go no higher than being part of the senior management team of their organisation and, in terms of career progression, few CIOs go on to become CEOs or even COOs.

Only three per cent of Fortune Global 500 companies have a CEO with previous IT experience, including those at Intel, MCI, Progressive and Walgreen, while only three per cent of COOs have previous experience as CIOs.

Heidi Sinclair, European CEO at Burson-Marsteller, told silicon.com that businesses still don't 'get' the value of IT and view it purely as an additional expense.

She said: "After Y2K and the dot-com crash, CIOs went from heroes to dogs overnight and this research shows there's still a fundamental lack of understanding of the importance of technology for businesses."

But Sinclair added the current wave of compliance and corporate governance work is an opportunity for CIOs to demonstrate their strategic importance to the board.