Recruiter and Alum Robert Gariano (MSIT 2006) Speaks on the Right Way to Recruit CIOs.
"Over the last five years, my executive recruiting firm, Robert Gariano Associates, has been involved in helping our clients hire CIOs for a variety of commercial organizations. From the insight we have gained in our global CIO practice, and by extrapolating these findings to the global recruiting environment, our search firm has assembled some estimates about the scale and cost of these recruiting projects. These estimates suggest the importance of accurately specifying the attributes needed for a successful CIO. This accurate position specification is important in finding the right person to run the IT organization and in ensuring that the person selected is successful as an integral leader in the company.
From our search work, we estimate that in a typical year, there are approximately 75 new CIOs appointed among the Fortune 500 group of companies. In public companies throughout North America with annual revenues over $500 million, the total number of new CIOs appointed each year is more than double that number. The total number of new CIOs in larger commercial enterprises around the world probably approaches 300 each year. While titles and reporting relationships for these executives vary, each is responsible for managing and directing the team within the business that is tasked with designing, developing, and implementing management information systems for their respective enterprises.
These new IT leaders replace executives who are retiring, being reassigned, or who are replaced because they have not met the requirements of the position. Effective IT management has become an ever more important operating imperative that affects results throughout all the other functions of a successful commercial enterprise. This means that the leaders who run the IT and management function have assumed newly critical roles in the success of businesses in any industry or commercial arena. Identifying and recruiting the next CIO is a crucial objective for the senior management team and the board of directors in any company."
BY ROBERT GARIANO
