MBA students gain insight into changing role of CIO

Anna Wang
The State Hornet
Published December 7, 1999

Ten years ago the chief information officer of a company only fixed the computers; now the CIO also gets involved in the business management of the company itself.

About 60 graduate students gained insight into this changing role of the CIO when a panel of four business executives rendered their opinions at the Management Information Systems 221 seminar organized by business professor Merle Martin last Saturday.

To the vice president and CIO of Raley's Food, Scott Langdoc, the role of CIO is practical, tactical and technical. "It's distinctly, dramatically aligned with the activities where the company is going, and you want to be a part of revenue generation and cost saving. We all put on a marketing hat," he said.

The U.S. Computer Services International VP and CIO Ken Taylor, and VP of Enterprise Development of Foundation Health Systems Dave LaMar also agreed that a CIO is a challenging role with a great expectation of a hybrid of business and technology skills.

In addition they drew upon their own experience in urging MBA students to expand their horizons in terms of academic curricula and communication skills.

"Project management, expertise, understanding, participation and proactivity, which is educating yourself and learning and gathering knowledge, are the things that business leaders, MBA students and people going to Information Technology organizations need to possess very quickly," Langdoc said.

With an MBA in marketing, Taylor suggested, "You need to be very well read. Information becomes very easy to read, and you become conversant with concepts. There are series of books coming out every year about business practices in application and design. The key contribution to understand business is to be able to understand the overall high-level technology architecture."

Busch highlighted the significance of good communication skills in business dealings.

"As a member of a project team and a functional organization, you are not only responsible to technology, but also have to contact people who are working on it. The things to do are to ask questions and listen. Most of the learning experience in my career comes from people around me rather than classes and books," he said.

"The panel brought us a great understanding of reality in the IT field and gave credibility to the professor's curriculum. This course gives a flavor of directions that you can head for and focuses on what's at the end of career path," said MBA graduate Susan Wren.

As the only MIS requirement for the MBA program, MIS 221 is about the use of information technology as a management resource. Moreover, it takes advantage of technology by broadcasting it on the air, so students can save time not having to travel to campus.

Unlike the traditional course, this broadcast course offers students a choice. They can attend class at home; they can tape it and watch it over and over; they may call in if they have any questions; and most important of all, "It gives them flexibility to adapt to their individual schedule," Martin said.

On the other hand, this innovative way of teaching helps the professors improve their teaching.

"My wife always tapes the class, and makes me watch the whole three hours. My colleagues give me feedback. They all helped me to get it better," Martin said.

Saturday's lecture was not only a wrap-up of the entire class this semester, but also signified a satisfactory end for Martin, for whom, after teaching the course for many years, this was the final class.