While reviewing my technorati search feed, an interesting post came to my notice titled "What is a Chief Information Officer?".

"The CIO assures we have the information we need to run the company,"

In an industry known for change, the CIO's job description hasn't changed at all which is rather amazing. But what has changed is the CIO's work environment.

While the CIO's job description, at its highest level is easy to say, it is one of the most complex in business mostly because today's CIO is under demands to be both business executive and technology manager. In fact, according to CIO Insight, 55 percent say contributing to corporate strategy is one of their three top responsibilities.

Some interesting excerpts from there:

Here are some details about the average CIO:
Average Age: 47
gender: male (9% are women)
Years as CIO of current company: 6.4
Years as CIO in any company: 9.7
Reports to: CEO or President
Background: 65% IT, 9% business, 26% hybrid
Previous position: IT manager
Annual salary in 2004: $140K
Hours of work each week: 53

(from CIO Insight, April 5, 2005)Prashanth RaiTag(s):CIO