How the fastest-growing companies see their CIOs differently

What's the difference between a CIO at a high-growth company and their counterpart at a lower growth business? According to new research, both seniority and strategic thinking are key.

CIOs at businesses seeing high profit growth are far more likely to be among the most high-ranking members of their company, research surveying more than 2,500 CIOs has found.

At high-growth companies, 62 per cent of CIOs are members of the most senior management team, compared to just 46 per cent at low-growth businesses. "High-growth CIOs exert a wide span of organisational influence", the research, conducted by IBM, added.

That influence can be seen in how likely an IT chief is to be enlisted in developing strategy: 74 per cent of high-growth CIOs say they help create business strategy, while just 61 per cent of low-growth CIOs say the same. Similarly, in high growth companies, 62 per cent of CIOs decide on business strategy as part of the most senior members of the company, compared to 46 per cent at low growth organisations.

"CIOs are increasingly recognised as full-fledged members of the senior executive team. Successful CIOs are much more actively engaged in setting strategy, enabling flexibility and change, and solving business problems, not just IT problems," it added.

As well as having less involvement in business strategy, low-growth CIOs spend far more time on IT projects aimed at simply keeping the lights on.

High-growth CIOs do more than just keep the lights on (Photo credit: rpongsaj via Flickr.com under the following Creative Commons licence)

High-growth IT heads spend 87 per cent more time on projects "enabling the business and corporate vision" than lower-growth CIOs, the survey found, while low-growth tech bosses spend 74 per cent more time on core tech services than their equivalents in higher growth companies, the research found.

That's not to say technical ability isn't important to high-growth CIOs, however. The report notes: "While partnering closely with the business is vital, high-growth CIOs realise the importance of honing and applying IT expertise - not just their own, but that of the entire IT organisation... They demonstrate high technical literacy that earns the respect of their technical thought leaders."