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Leader: CIO Forum - in defence of the CIO
Two telling themes emerge from silicon.com day of debate

By silicon.com

Published: Thursday 30 September 2004

As the dust settles on the silicon.com CIO Forum held at the beginning of this week it starts to get easier to draw some conclusions from the event and to see what really matters to CIOs and others at the top of the IT user tree.

Two things emerge, linked to most of what was said. First, that the age-old debate about how much of a business person a technology head has to be (and vice versa, across the board of a company) is still raging. Second, it emerged that many of the CIOs, IT directors et al we heard from on the day need to get a little defensive in order to field some of the allegations being thrown around. It's quite possible the second point relates to the first.

The event was planned to cover a range of subjects, all of them linked to theme of UK organisations exhibiting excellence in using information and communications technology.

It is this publication's view that the UK does have some of the best users of IT in the world - in terms of individuals and organisations - but that's not to say they don't face challenges.

From the off - Mike Lynch's keynote - we were reminded that issues such as compliance mean even more heat from the board and shareholders (often). Then there were question marks over just how innovative UK users are.

A string of CIOs from organisations such as banks, retailers, airlines and the public sector all answered that there is no point in being innovative for its own sake. Not always doing so doesn't mean they're not progressive or unambitious - but you could be forgiven for thinking so from some of the comments from vendors and pundits.

And on the subject of leadership, we once again heard whether we need a fundamental shake-up of the CIO role. Does it stand for, as Rene Carayol said, 'career is over'? Is it time, as another contributor asked, for a new title?

It appears that what people do is more important than what they say or what they are called - though those things matter too.

Not every head of IT (call them what you will) will have every quality. But in an age when so much is expected of them, let's take from the CIO Forum the positives of the support they receive and the examples of their accomplishments.

It could be that a day of honest debate has forwarded the position of the CIO, maybe just a little.