CIOs: information program leaders in transition: chief information officers have a lot to learn from records and information management professionals. The two professions must work together to provide leadership, innovation, and sound information management practices to benefit their companies' growth and stability.

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In recent years, the number of information professions and careers has grown dramatically. Among these additions to the field are chief knowledge officer, strategic information specialist, imaging specialist, taxonomist, metadata specialist, intellectual capital specialist, data mining/miner, proprietary information manager, information broker, competitor intelligence specialist, prospect researcher, information architect, information designer, geographical information system specialist, hypermedia products developer, electronic mail manager, and chief privacy officer.

Several of these disciplines have been discussed in the pages of The Information Management Journal because for records and information management (RIM) managers, they represent adjacent, or cognate, fields, and they represent opportunities to partner with allied information professionals in their organizations. Here the focus will be on the chief information officer (CIO).

Most sizeable companies, governments, universities, and other institutions now have CIOs or someone else with a comparable title (e.g., director of information technology [IT]). The duties vary, but the term normally signifies the most senior official in an organization charged with assessing IT and information needs and overseeing the organization and deployment of information to meet organizational priorities. In some settings, the work focuses on IT and computer systems, but in a growing number of organizations, the emphasis is shifting more to executive-level policy work. The dramatic rise in the number and influence of CIOs in the past decade is a reflection of organizations' growing reliance on digital technology; the centrality of digital information to the operations, products, and services of institutions; and a growing chief executive officer (CEO) determination to improve the management of IT, apply information strategically, and contain costs.

This trend is important to RIM managers for several reasons. CIOs may have responsibility for organizational IT and information management; business records are an important part of this information universe. RIM managers may report to CIOs or in any case need to work closely with them. The CIO may control the IT budget and make decisions on software and other aspects of information management that affect the RIM manager's work. Some RIM managers have become, or aspire to become, CIOs: the challenges are in some ways alike, the skill sets needed are similar, and being promoted to CIO may be a good career move as well as a beneficial decision for the organization. In some cases, the RIM manager's role may gradually expand and redefine itself such that the RIM manager may become the de facto chief information officer.

On the other hand, the CIO is likely to be higher up the administrative hierarchy and expected to deploy information strategically in support of organizational priorities. CIOs are gradually moving away from a self-proclaimed "service" function and toward asserting that they are playing a more central executive role. In some settings, the RIM manager and the CIO may be in separate administrative offices and perhaps operate in a silo culture where communication and cooperation are not valued. The CIO may be relatively new and with what he or she believes is a mandate for change; the RIM manager may have been directing what he or she believes is a successful, responsive records management program for many years. There may be competition for influence and resources; a 2003 ARMA International and Cohasset survey described the rising influence of CIOs and IT program managers as electronic records management shifted from a standalone technology to a component of enterprise content management. Professionally, RIM managers provide a sound foundation in that they:

* Operate from established principles more than 60 years in existence

* Have a good deal of precedent practice by other professionals to show the way

* Have a long-standing professional organization

* Have a professional journal-of-record for the field (Information Management Journal and its predecessor, Records Management Quarterly) in place for 40 years

* Have an international standard for records management (ISO 15489-1--Information and Documentation--Records Management--Part 1: General).

CIOs, by contrast, are part of a much newer and still-emerging field; have much less by way of precedent, principles, and literature; lack a central professional association and a central journal; do not have a recognized standard; and, therefore, may be more inclined toward freewheeling, improvisation, and inventiveness than their RIM colleagues. RIM managers feel constant incentives to change and grow, but their roles are normally well-defined, and their bosses' expectations are reasonably definite as well. CIOs feel that they have to shape their job as they go; they often sense a gap between what they believe they should do and what their CEOs expect. To CIOs, the RIM manager's world may even appear positively placid compared to their own.

CIOs' Turbulent World

Interviews with CIOs and studies of their work almost always convey four themes: 1) expectations are undefined but high; 2) the core work changes and grows; 3) defending one's budget is a constant challenge; and 4) tenures are short and turnover high. The positions are attractive and pay well, but the field cannot seem to shake the oft-repeated warning that CIO actually means "Career is Over." What makes these seemingly influential information positions so challenging and rewarding at the same time? Several trends, summarized below, keep the work interesting and in flux. They are not all consistent, which accounts for some of the stress in the field.

* Expectations are growing for CIOs to play a central strategic role. CEOs want their CIOs to "create and implement new ideas," assume responsibility for "business process change," and to make a transition from running an IT operation to "transforming business activities," say business analysts Karen Rubenstrunk and Ram Charan in Optimize magazine. CIOs need to show impact and to report on how they are deploying information resources to meet company objectives.

* CIOs in some settings will assume policy-making responsibilities. The debate over where the CIO should report seems to be getting stale. In the most progressive settings, the answer is not only that the CIO should report to the CEO, but that the CIO has a role to play on the board of directors--or in close working relationship with the board. Korn-Ferry, a prominent executive leadership development firm, reported in July 2005 that nearly half of more than 2,000 global executives surveyed asserted that the CIO "absolutely" has a role to play on the board and should serve as an agent for "operational efficiency and change."

* The mix of responsibilities is changing. CIOs used to be primarily IT experts and managers; now, they are called on to be leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs. In his book Managing IT as a Business, Mark Lutchen contrasts the older and the current balance of skills required for successful CIOs in Figure 1.

* The makeup of the skill set is changing. CIOs used to be IT masters. With added responsibilities in an increasingly complex environment, however, they are finding a new mix of skills is needed. These include: ability to create a vision; leadership; a knack for interpreting and explaining complex, sometimes seemingly arcane, issues and problems so that non-experts can understand; ability to shape expectations and keep reshaping them as the organization moves ahead; capacity to make IT and information policy dovetail with organizational priorities; and an ability to build a team and manage, empower, and inspire people.

* Resources fluctuate and are now increasing. Many CIOs saw their budgets sag after the dot.com bust of a few years ago. Recession and slow economic growth continued to discourage IT and information resource investment. Now, that is changing. A 2005 Gartner survey referred to in a report entitled "The Door Is Unlocked for CIOs" in BusinessWeek Online found that two-thirds of the companies surveyed were raising their IT budgets faster than their operating budgets for the first time in several years. But larger budgets are matched by higher expectations that the CIO will "bring multiple options to the table to help solve business problems." But many veteran CIOs are cautious. Despite their best efforts to educate and document their work and accomplishments, they are apprehensive that if business takes a downturn, their area will be among the first to be cut.

* Turnover continues to be high. One of the problems is that CIOs fail to stay in place long enough to carry out work that involves building a strong staff, planning and administering new initiatives, monitoring the technology and, in many cases, at the same time changing the institution's understanding of IT and information management. A 2004 General Accounting Office study, Federal CIOs, reported that the average tenure of federal agency CIOs was two years--not nearly long enough to make sustained changes, particularly in government, which is not known for rapid transformations. The turnover figures for private-sector CIOs are also high. Among the causes: unclear and excessively high expectations on the part of CEOs; job-related stress from being pulled in too many directions at once; and seeing the CIO job as an upper limit for that career track and, therefore, jumping to a new career path.