The quest for renewed CIO stature

I have never really been victim to the callow habit of hero-worshipping. The people I admire tend to be the types who, sublimely talented, compete only against themselves (which seems an argument against my admiring even them, but never mind that).

Despite this sad lack of heroes, I have admired certain types. While I studied (law, as it happens), I was lucky enough to escape total boredom with the fantastic opportunity to read lengthy transcripts of court cases, and the sometimes hugely entertaining things judges come up with.

I`d have liked it if CIOs were given the sort of respect that their personal abilities and sophistication seem to warrant.

Carel Alberts, Technology editor, ITWeb

One judge remarked limpidly and resonantly that "the law must not only be done, but also be seen to be done". It was such a splendid irrelevance, I grooved on it for years. I became quite philosophical myself as a consequence (but I never smoked a pipe, as some of my alma mater did).

Another one, bless him, said of a woman`s golf stroke that it "travelled, improbably, at right angles off the face of the club, and insinuated itself into the eye of the plaintiff, where it caused grievous damage", or some such words. Of course, these sentiments are highly self-indulgent and showy, but man, were they entertaining.

So what I`m trying to say is, judges have been my favourite people since 1986.

CIOs have started getting my attention recently, though. They`re notoriously tough to meet, but seem likely to give you the time of day, I eventually found, if you just phone them up and ask your questions. And once you`ve got them on the line, you`ll struggle not to become a believer in these people.

I`ve had occasion to chat to a few of them recently, and they have been forthright, voluble, eloquent, downright nice and highly skilled in dealing with the media, whom they obviously don`t fear (we can smell it).

SARS`s Ken Jarvis is well-liked in this office (I suppose we can assert our independent assessment of him by saying he works for the enemy, but his personal gravitas has swung those of us who`ve met him). Edcon`s Henri Slabbert has been nothing but a satisfying interviewee in my experience, even in difficult circumstances. A journalist gains respect for that sort of thing, and is likely to strive to even higher standards of fairness when faced with such gentlemanliness.

Absa`s Leon du Randt had no qualms about answering any of what must have been thorny questions from me. In short, I`m impressed, and half my office is as impressed as I am with some of the names I mention here.

Plato once said the king should be a philosopher. Likewise, I`d have liked it if CIOs were given the sort of respect that their personal abilities and sophistication seem to warrant. But they`re not.

Accenture has announced findings that CIOs feel alienated from executive teams, and their role is looked down upon as being operational and not strategic. Working in more progressive organisations and being a heavyweight CIO seem to be two ways in which this can be remedied, but Accenture remarks that this tenuous respect is all too easily lost with a failure to make money or cut costs.

Of course, by cutting costs, organisations reveal a tendency to take a short-term view of the role of IT and the CIO, which cannot make things easier. And this difficulty is compounded by a complicated mess of other problems, some of them working in conflict - from budgetary pressures to an absence of ROI and TCO metrics.

It seems the CIO of today is faced with the unenviable, seemingly impossible task of pleasing everyone. But, as a colleague remarks, you don`t become a CIO without managing people and technology, and having moved in that realm for a while, maybe they`re up to the task of re-entering the boardrooms of corporate SA.

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CIOs losing respect