Get On Board

摘要

In the latest survey on the tortured subject of aligning IT with business strategy, 46 percent of 2,000 senior executives told recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International that CIOs "absolutely" have a role to play on a company's board of directors. What's startling about this finding isn't the fact that almost half the execs think CIOs have the experience, expertise, comportment and intelligence to shape a company's future. It's that more than half are less than sure. The Korn/Ferry survey follows a study last year by Burson-Marsteller which found that only 5 percent of more than 3,000 companies it researched actually had a CIO on their boards. A quick look today at the boards of the 10 largest companies in the world reveals no IT execs on their boards, though No. 1 Wal-Mart has a prominent technology venture capitalist, while No. 5 General Motors, No. 6 Daimler-Chrysler and No. 8 Ford have current or former tech vendor CEOs on their boards.