Ambitious IT pros seek COO role
To effect truly strategic and visionary change, motivated tech leaders are looking at operations rather than IT.
Beth Stackpole
03-18-2014
Except from the article:
Trending: “CIO-plus” roles
In many cases, when IT and operations do converge, it’s not a case of a traditional COO taking the reins of IT, but rather of an elite CIO stepping up. That’s part of a broader trend to award the senior IT role more responsibility — what some management consultants are calling “CIO-plus.”
“The great CIOs are becoming more of an operator and view their role like a COO, thinking more broadly and recognizing their strategic perch in the corporate structure,” says Peter High, president of Metis Strategy LLC, a boutique strategy and management consulting firm. “They are more likely to have an intimate understanding of other areas like human resources and the supply chain that arguably no other leader has, so it’s logical for them to take that next step to COO.”
For Duane Anderson, a CIO-plus role has always been a goal. Anderson, now CIO/COO at marketing agency Marquette Group, has had several key mentors, including Tekexec’s Stanley, who blazed the trail for a broader CIO role when the pair were at Harrah’s Entertainment, now Caesars. “It was part of the proving ground when I came up,” Anderson says. “I didn’t know that it wasn’t normal.”
To read the remainder of the article, please visit Computerworld
If interested, please read a related article on how CIOs Are Finally Getting Some Respect, written by Esther Shein and published in The Enterprising CIO.
