CIO Survival Guide: The Roles and Responsibilities of the Chief Information Officer (Hardcover)

by Karl D. Schubert (Author) "The exact time and place that the IT profession began is impossibIe to determine..." (more)
Key Phrases: senior information technology executive, technology evaluation team, functional underground, Star Trek, Best Buy, Harvard Business School Press (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
CIO Survival Guide is a leadership manual for the emerging role of the Chief Information Officer. This book supports and guides CIOs in acquiring or enhancing their technical skills and leadership competencies to be a full and respected member of the Executive Team. It includes exposition and practice of the skills and competencies required to be a successful CIO.

From the Inside Flap
Few professions are more challenging than that of the CIO. The CIO is the go—to person for all things IT; there’s no other position in the company like it. For a CIO to succeed, he or she must be prepared for anything. The CIO Survival Guide lays out a strategic, step—by—step road map of successful skills and competencies for CIOs in today’s demanding times.

In the simplest terms, CIOs are expected to translate the complex world of IT into a readily understandable set of ideas and solutions. The successful CIO translates and demonstrates IT possibilities into meaningful value creation for his or her company. Compiling the success stories of seasoned IT professionals at all levels in the industry--;especially senior IT operations and product development executives and managers--;CIO Survival Guide integrates their diverse experiences, observations, discussions, and research to identify the inherent obstacles of the position, as well as offer concrete advice to overcome the day—to—day, year—to—year challenges of the job. This vital blueprint to success not only guides readers through the changing role of the CIO and IT function planning, it also describes specific strategies for creating value.

Written to help CIOs and aspiring CIOs bolster their requisite skills and to help managers determine what they should expect from their CIOs, CIO Survival Guide examines:

• What CEOs really want in their CIOs
• How to develop positive working relationships with other key executives
• Ten questions the CIO must ask the CEO
• Creating the IT internal partnership network
• Evolving CIO expectations--;technologist or "businologist?"
• Ten questions the CIO should ask outsourced service providers
• The language of the industry
• Enterprise—wide strategic planning
• CIO risk profile assessment
• Decisions a CIO should never make alone

To become the best, you must first learn from the best. Turn to the CIO Survival Guide for the leading advice in CIO leadership.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471457930
• ISBN-13: 978-0471457930
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #392,081 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Follow the path to success, June 20, 2004

By	Mike Tarrani "www.tarrani.com" (Deltona, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

I have a single quibble with this outstanding book, and that is the title, "CIO Survival Guide", implies a reactive approach, while the book is totally focused on a proactive approach that will assure the success of any CIO who follows Schubert's excellent advice.

From the first pages, where the new CIO is given ten key questions to ask the CEO to establish his of her role with clarity, to the steps to build a functioning IT organization that is aligned to business imperatives, this book is on target every step of the way.

In a nutshell, Schubert leads you through relationship building, how to lead as well as manage, prioritization and resource management, and strategy formulation and decision making. These are critical success factors for any CxO position, but are too often lacking in CIOs. By following the advice on gaining a focus and unifying business and technology competencies you'll establish yourself as a valued member of the CxO team. More importantly, the advice provided in Chapter 4, Connecting IT to Value Creation, is not only the true key to success, but is the key to proving the value of IT to business - this is the one area where most CIOs and their IT organizations fall short, yet Schubert manages to distill all you need to know in a single chapter.

This is the best book I've read on the roles and responsibilities of a CIO. Too many books on this subject are more about small-to-medium businesses and focus too much on managing technology instead of managing to shareholder value and business operation support. I strongly recommend this book as a primary reference, and also recommend "CIO Wisdom: Best Practices from Silicon Valley" (ISBN 0131411152), which is a collection of articles by successful CIOs that nicely augment this book.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars CIO suicidal guide, August 18, 2008

By	Maurice Karam - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Some genreic guidelines about management, that can be applied to any mid level managerial position. And the rest is proposing to 'Align IT strategy with Business Strategy', without telling how to do it.

The book also suggests to ask your CEO "what do you expect from me as a CIO"!. It is like asking, say, your wife "what do expect from me as a husband!".

Not one word about IT Governance, the best practices like ITIL, COBIT, CMMI or the certification processes like ISO, etc.

It does have few interesting figures- all taken from other sources.

Immagine a book called 'how to fly a plane' but only teaches you how to talk to passengers... This is how this book is related to CIO.