The Cio Case

After the establishment of the CIO position, their role has been mostly about implementing the latest and greatest security technology. There is absolutely no doubt that security plays a very vital role in a business, however, the role of the CIO is not just about identifying and implementing the latest business technology. In fact, implementing new and efficient technology is only a small part of the CIO's role; the CIO is also held responsible for the protection of the corporation's information while at the same time making it readily accessible to the people that need it. Information is not something that can be placed in some sort of lockbox; it is fluid and information flows freely within and outside of a corporation. Due to the emergence of information technology, employees are able to work remotely so they are no longer confined to the brick and mortar office space. Moreover, important meetings are held virtually which means all parties do not have to be in the same room or even time zone. Employees have company laptops, USB flash drives, PDAs and tablets that make information readily available. Since company information can no longer be stored in one place, the CIO's greatest headache is how to ensure that the company's data cannot be intercepted and decoded by unauthorized users which could put the entire corporation in jeopardy. This could lead to loss of intellectual property and such assets that maybe vital to the company's survival. Therefore, it is critical for corporations to employ CIOs that are very knowledgeable about the challenges in information technology and understand how to navigate the corporation to overcome these challenges. The role of the CIO is nothing to be taken lightly and it will behoove every corporation to ensure that it hires a very knowledgeable CIO as part of its team. In this paper, I will focus on the value of the CIO's role in corporate governance and how it has not and should not be devalued.