They direct the use of IT to support the company's goals. With knowledge of both technology and business process and a cross-functional perspective, they are usually the managers most capable of aligning the organization's technology deployment strategy with its business strategy. CIOs oversee technology purchases, implementation and various related services provided by the information systems department. However, at many leading-edge organizations, the CIO delegates many of the tactical and operational issues to a "trusted lieutenant" in order to focus on more strategic concerns.

As the C.I.O of the company, he or she must possesses the following attributes: imagination, leadership, vision, strategic thinking, courage, change agent, champion, understand issues, data bigot, interpersonal skills, ability to navigate in a complex organization, fosters staff renewal, maintaining network of peers/stakeholders.

In many corporations, the chief information officer (CIO) or IT director is the newest addition to the senior management team. But while it may be the latest ingredient in the alphabet soup of corporate management, the CIO's role is growing fast in both numbers and importance, and it is evolving as it grows.

The number of corporate CIOs has increased dramatically over the past two decades as information management moves from the wings of company operations to center stage. The CIO's role is shifting from the technical business of data processing to the more broadly conceived job of "knowledge management." So important has managing knowledge become to the success of a company that harnessing knowledge may be a corporation's most pressing challenge-and at the very heart of the CIO's evolving role.

Though a relative newcomer to the executive wing, the CIO has become in many ways the most challenging and dynamic leadership role in the business world. Throughout the '80s and '90s, corporations have faced dramatic challenges brought about by changes in markets and corporate organizations. In many industries, both production and markets have globalized. Companies have experienced major shifts both upward and downward in the scale of operations through significant downsizing and major mergers and acquisitions. In responding to these dramatic changes, companies have invested vast resources to reengineer their operations. It has been estimated that companies worldwide are spending $52 billion a year on reengineering, of which $40 billion goes annually into information technology. In other words, the CIO is at the center of many of the most volatile and costly changes in the life of a corporation.
 

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