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When I joined IT journalism as a cub reporter, way back in 1989, one of the first assignments I got was to interview the GM, EDP of a large hotel in Delhi. I called him up for a meeting and he said, "Come whenever you can, any day any time. I will be in the office. Where do I go?"

When I landed up in his office next day, I met a man who looked more like an academician from a university, his small table covered with lots of technical books and journals. During the 70 odd minute meeting with him, he kept complaining about how there was no value for IT or him in the organization. And he also mentioned that his boss, who was the head of administration, had actually never used a computer in his life.

In my short interaction I had a feeling that he was literally obsessed with IT-often suggesting that IT was the remedy for all problems. He also did not seem to have a deep understanding of other subjects-specially sales and marketing. Actually, at that time IT was more for internal use than for serving end customers, but he seemed to be not very sure of the needs of even his internal users.

The world has changed completely since then. Try meeting a CIO-even if it's a small company-you will realize that the profile has also completely changed. Today CIOs are almost always traveling-briefing team members in other locations, overseeing IT roll-outs, taking inputs from internal users for designing solutions, attending technology conferences, and even meeting customers to understand their requirements. Obviously, the fact that his department impacts each end every functional department-from finance to HR to manufacturing-is well known. A company's IT infrastructure and therefore the CIO is influencing the fate of many plans and strategies. IT and the CIO are making or breaking an organization.

One expects CIOs to be technology gurus. But successful CIOs have proved that they have the knack of understanding the needs of the business equally well, and then get IT that fulfills those needs. Unlike techies, CIOs do not get carried away by technology-a charge leveled them earlier-but show interest in IT only if it solves their business problems. They understand the problem first and then the technology. And finally, CIOs are quick and resilient-they experiment, gauge results fast, and then move on.

More than anything else, at a time when IT was in the form of small islands in most organizations, the role of IT heads was also limited, in many ways. Not any more, as we see globalization of businesses and standardization of systems and processes. A CIO and his decisions have an impact on the whole organization, which can often be global.

Also with globalization happening, CIOs are the one with a global perspective of almost everything-user needs, systems and processes, business environment, and dos on. Today's CIOs are therefore very different from those we found 15-20 years back, who could often not connect with the world. And as companies become more global, the challenge is going to be more.

Therefore the profile as well as the role of the present day CIO is completely different from what it was many years back. The relationship between the CIO and the senior leadership of the company is very important. In most modern and progressive organizations CIOs report to either the CEO, or the COO who runs the operations. That has begun to happen in India but it must happen faster. And the CIOs must assert for it.

The author is Group Editor of Dataquest. ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in

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