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Why Don't More CIOs Become CEO?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the because-they-know-better dept.

jcatcw writes "Thornton May is mystified by the very small number of Fortune 500 companies that led by former CIOs. "Knowing what we know about CIOs — that is, that most are smart, hardworking, supremely aware of how the business works and increasingly savvy regarding the workings of external customers' minds — the failure of more CIOs to become CEO has to be one of the biggest mysteries of our age.""

3 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. how about by argoff · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How about, they can be productive, stay on the cool technology, and get good pay with only a fraction of the corporate governance bullshit.

  2. Re:For the same reason F&A VPs don't become CE by jenkin+sear · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You're absolutely right.

    CEO's come from a company's profit centers- sales and marketing. COO's come from a company's cost centers- operations, production, and IT. COOs rarely jump to become CEOs. The board that picks the CEO is almost always interested in maximizing profit, never interested in minimizing loss.

    --
    What a strange bird is the pelican, his beak can hold more than his belly can.
  3. THat's easy, wrong degree by Socguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now I doubt this is going to go over will on /. but when I was in university we noted a - completely non-scientific - pattern that I'll try to sum up as succinctly as possible:

    'Those who want to work for someone else go into engineering/IT; those who want others to work for them go into the arts.'

    If you don't believe me go check out the Forbes 500 richest people list and see how many of them either dropped out or have liberal arts degrees. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2003/02/26/billionaire land.html

    Now excuse my while I go round up some flame-retardant clothing.

    S.