CIO

Many organizations have a difficult time separating the responsibilities of the CTO from those of the CIO, which can make the working relationship between the two very difficult. At the 2001 InfoWorld CTO Forum, large companies identified their responsibilities as being externally focused while the CIO's responsibilities were internally focused. (82). However, the Infoworld CTO Forum at 2003 really emphasized a major integration of two roles.

Corporations have realized that they need a CIO to oversee the application of technology to internal operations. This has included computer systems for accounting, billing, telephony, security, and a host of other functions. Prior to the creation of the CTO position, the CIO was the only executive technologist and was often called upon to support manufacturing computerization, the purchase of computer aided design packages, and strategic decisions for injecting technology into products. (74)

The internal/external division of responsibilities is a very useful differentiation, but it leaves significant gray areas that can result in turf wars between the two players. Therefore, the CTO's relationship with the CIO should be based on a more clearly defined division of responsibility. The goal is to create a complementary and supportive relationship that maximizes contributions to corporate strategy and profitability

Kwak cites the results of a study of pairs of executives at 69 companies that indicated that the business acumen of CIOs was equal to that of their executive peers. Another study of 417 construction company executives found that 80 percent of the CIOs in those companies were considered equal contributors of the strategic decision making process. (7) Therefore, the CTO should be able to learn from the integration experience of the CIO.