Editor's Blog: Crisis of confidence for CIOs

Bad news - the reputation of the CIO is in pretty poor shape. Just read these harsh words from one of the UK's leading IT chiefs, Toby Redshaw, the CIO of Aviva (and one of the silicon.com CIO50 this year):

"I've seen CIOs transformed from being an aggressive, positive bunch to being extremely timid - within just a decade or so. CIOs have been absolutely hammered by businesses, because IT has so often disappointed."

He goes on: "And CIOs have to take part of the blame - not only for poor execution but also for poor management of expectations."

Strong words indeed. And his is not a lone voice.

"Too few companies enjoy a clear, open and co-operative relationship between the CIO and his or her team, and the rest of the business," says a Deloitte report on the role of the CIO, from which Redshaw's comments also came.

Business chiefs don't know what a CIO is or does, the report claims, and to make it worse: "The fact that historically, companies' information and technology projects have often failed to fully deliver their intended benefits does not help. Senior executives still ask why they should have a CIO on the senior management team when many candidates have presided over, at best, patchy performance."

Tough talk. And sadly it's not the first time I've heard such stinging criticism of CIOs from CIOs, especially on the issue of them becoming more timid. Quite recently I was talking to a head of IT who blamed the broader CIO community for failing to address issues that faced them all, such as skills or the behaviour of vendors.

So what is going wrong? Perhaps it's a reflection of the short tenure of the average CIO, somewhere around three years. It's hard to make an impact if you've barely got the seat warmed up before heading off again.

Perhaps it's because CIOs can become identified with a particular project, such as putting in a big ERP system, and are seen as implementers rather than thinkers.

Perhaps, as those quoted above suggest, it's the fault of CIOs - and vendors - for over-promising and under-delivering. Which suggests it's about time to push back on the vendor hype and get a little more realistic about what technology really can do.

This research - and the conversations I've had recently - suggest a sudden lack of confidence in the CIO community. But we shouldn't forget there is still a vital role for the CIO in terms of aiding - and indeed developing - any organisation's strategy, especially now as we face an economic downturn.

When CIOs come together to tackle an issue that faces them all - as they have done on the subject of software licensing, for instance - they can be a formidable opponent. And there are plenty of issues about which CIOs ought to be making their combined voices heard, issues where their leadership can make a real difference.

Indeed, in its own way silicon.com's very own CIO Jury is a fantastic example of CIOs making their views clear to a wide audience.

So CIOs: this is no time for a crisis of confidence - make your voices heard!

Editor's choice - things you should check out on silicon.com this week:

Wondering if CIOs are getting ready to let Windows Vista loose inside their organisations? Read the latest CIO Jury and find out just how many are planning to get cracking (hint: not exactly everyone).

Most agree the shortage of women in IT is a bad thing. Read this column to find out why.

Feeling generous? Which of these would you put in your CIO's stocking?