Online discussion questions – Aug 29
- What should be qualifications for a position of a Chief Information Officer?
- Why do Mr. Carl Williams and the board of directors at IVK choose Mr. Jim Barton for a new CIO?
- Should a CIO be chosen among technically-trained managers or business-background managers?
- Which skill is easier to learn? IT or Management? Why?
- What does it take for you to become a successful CIO?
What do you think? Leave your thoughts that you couldn’t share in-class.
In my opinion, I believed that IT skills are easier to learn than Management skills and the reason why I believed that is because IT skills are more straightforward to the results which are either going to solve the problem or it doesn’t work. On the other hand, Management skills are more complex when it is dealing with the results. For example, companies like Walmart and Target, they are very alike, but they have a completely different business strategy and different style of manage their business. Same IT skills can solve any problems in the company; however, same management skills do not fit for every company, and it could have different results. Base on this we can say that IT skills are easier to learn when to compare with Management skills.
I believe that IT skills are easier to learn in oppose to management skills because IT skill can be learn by practicing within book or video lessons. This practical skill can be obtained with practicing individually. In oppose to management skills, an individual can management skills by going through different experiences so they would know how to react with the situation in the future. Management skills are also hard to learn because interacting with humans differs from individuals.
To become a successful CIO, I believe they should be a firm believer, detail oriented and also need to be able to interact with any level of the the company.
In order to become a successful CIO, one must fully understand the business’ structure, strategy, products, consumers and be well balanced between IT and management. Understanding the business structure allows the CIO to further assess the productivity of their employees as well as the technology in use. The CIO must also have the ability to clearly and effectively communicate to the employees especially in time of crisis, where immediate and strategical change is necessary.
I think a CIO should be chosen among business-background managers. Since CIO’s directly deal with IT departments and people that know IT, having a business manager would help to bring a high level of business understanding with a high level of IT ability. This would help to close the capability gap by introducing business-oriented goals to IT-oriented solutions. On the other hand, a technically-trained manager would only bring more of what the IT departments already offer.
On top of a knowledge of business and technology, it is essential for a CIO to have the power to build strong relationships. Since they will most likely be dealing with multiple departments within a company, the CIO will want to ensure that he or she has good relationships with all the departments so that it creates a healthy and welcoming environment to complete projects. Furthermore, I believe it is easier to learn IT skills rather than management skills. Management is a skill that takes real world experience to have, while IT skills are easier to simulate in a classroom setting. Also, IT is a very black and white area while business/management is an area where personal judgement is needed.
What should be qualifications for a position of a Chief Information Officer?
In my opinion, to be a good CIO, it is important to understand the company’s mission, strategies, and the business processes, because understanding the business can help to establish clear goals to improve the business performance. A good CIO should also have a strong interpersonal and communication skill because both interpersonal and communication skills can help to increase work efficiency by building a strong team relationship.
In my opinion, I believe that it is easier to learn IT skills than to learn management skills. For IT skills, you may learn the IT skills from college or self-study if you spend enough time. However, for managing a company, the most important thing is experience. You not only need to spend time to learn how to manage a company, but also the opportunity for a person to work in many different fields is very rare. Moreover, dealing with person is more complex than dealing with a tool. Each person is different and unique. How to manage a group of employees is a headache problem. It is hard to make everyone happy. Conversely, there may be many flexible ways to use a tool. All you need is basic knowledge and right instruction to operate it. I think it is more difficult to find a person with expert managing skills than a person with IT skills. I think it is harder to train a person’s soft skills than hard skills. A person with variety experience is worth a lot more.
Which skill is easier to learn? IT or Management? Why?
IT skill is relatively easier to learn compare to management skill. In my opinion, the difference between IT skill and management skill could be based on learn to manage information system or learn to manage people. IT skill is a skill that people could learn it from school and textbook and it is a technical skill. It is a relationship between a computer and a human being. However, management skill includes people skill and leadership skill. People could learn all the theories in school, but it also depends on who and what type of personalities they encounter when they try to manage people. It could be a whole new learning process because people have to learn about the one person when they meet he/she. Both IT skill and management skill takes time to learn and to develop in order to master them.
Should a CIO be chosen among technically-trained managers or business-background managers?
A good CIO candidate should be skilled in both areas, and if they are completely unskilled in either area they will be a poor candidate for the job. The CIO will need to understand how technology works in an organization, but may not need to know the specifics. Their skills in business and management will make up for whatever technical knowledge they lack. These skills will allow a CIO to delegate to other employees effectively and understand what progress is being made.
Which skill is easier to learn? IT or Management? Why?
This question relates to the previous one because while they are both critical to have in any organization, one requires lifelong practice with interpersonal skills in a business setting and the other requires studying and practice that can be done alone and at one’s own pace. People are far less predictable than technology, and becoming accustomed to dealing with groups and leading others is a skill that must be honed over a lifetime.
Should a CIO be chosen among technically-trained managers or business-background managers?
To become a good CIO candidate. You are better to master both IT and business skills. However it is hard to look for such person. For candidates from IT field, people will emphasis on solution design, logical thinking and discipline, but they lack business experience, they may not understand business structure and design a software to meet project requirements. For candidates from Business field, people have business experience and understand business structure and requirements. They have a strong analytical and problem-solving skills as well as strong communication skills. Under this dilemma, I think a CIO should be chosen from business-background managers, because he/she is good at communicating with management and co-workers to solve problems and set a clear requirement for the project.