The incessant talk these days about how CIOs should act less like information technology specialists and more like CFOs, COOs or other business leaders is starting to get a little old. Certainly, the CIO must have a solid relationship with the rest of the C-suite and must be able to speak the top executives' language. The key IT decision maker's goals naturally have to be in sync with the company's overall goals. 

These are legitimate points, but they can be taken too far. The purpose of speaking the language of the CEO/CFO/COO should not be to downplay the importance of technology or whitewash its complexity; it should be to translate its value, and that can only be done by someone who speaks IT fluently and when such fluency is appreciated.

Organizations will not do themselves any favors by undervaluing IT expertise at the executive level. As increasingly advanced technologies take root in all aspects of the business, it becomes more--not less--important to have someone with IT acumen and experience positioned near the top of the organization. Take, for example, the challenge many enterprises face today in swapping technologies when the need arises. These organizations must be able to move faster and with greater flexibility than existing systems allow. They need to avoid getting stuck under a single vendor's thumb or locked into bad licensing agreements. Achieving the necessary changes will depend on the organization's ability to make IT decisions that will prove productive in the long run, not just in the next quarter. These decisions require an intimate understanding not only of the technologies themselves but of the IT market and the vendor culture.

Some historic perspective may be useful to this discussion. At one time, the CFO was little more than the top accountant in an organization, focused narrowly on preparing financial statements. But, as nicely described on the Wharton School website, the CFO position gradually became more strategic in the 1970s and 1980s. The CFO eventually was asked to bring the finance operations into alignment with the broader business strategy and to provide value-added information to the company as a whole. The responsibilities and the pressures grew, and today the CFO is a key business partner. Nobody would suggest that the job could be done by someone in another position or that the CFO's specialized skills should be de-emphasized in favor of another set of business skills.

CIOs, take comfort in knowing that the pressure you face today is not without precedent. - Caron