Which Type of CIO Are You?

An MIT Sloan School of Management researcher says CIOs fall under four categories: turnaround, operational, business leader and innovative. CIOs have played an especially important role at companies where core business processes are not rigidly defined by stepping in to help reengineer processes, says the researcher. Some CIOs even continue to have responsibility for processes — much like a COO — after they change them.

Turnaround Artrist
CIOs brought in to fix IT problems bring more to the table than basic IT management skills. They're turning things around, which requires more than a dollop of extra leadership and change management skills. So it should be no surprise that of our four archetypes, Turnaround CIOs are the most highly paid.

Operational Expert
Organizations that want more than that typically begin with an Operational CIO, who adds value with his project management expertise and his technology smarts, enabling him to deliver IT solutions faster than before (a.k.a. enterprise agility). These CIOs need to highlight their delivery skills -- and keep delivering -- to avoid being dismissed as utility CIOs. Indeed, this archetype faces the most challenges in terms of business alignment, access to resources and personal rewards.

Business Leader
This kind of CIOs are those who have good interpersonal skills and solid knowledge of business processes and may emphasize IT governance in the way they do their jobs and administer their departments. (They may hire Operational CIOs to do the heavy lifting.)

Innovative Agent
This kind CIOs have the ability to help envision and create new business products and services as though they were one of the business gang. Indeed, these CIOs may be experienced businesspeople enough to find themselves in companies where IT is as highly valued as any other competency, and thus the best and brightest are rotated through IT just as they might move through manufacturing and finance.

Read More ... [via: http://www.itworldcanada.com/]