The Next Leap in Productivity: What Top Managers Really Need to Know about Information Technology

3.2. It's Déjà Vu All Over Again

"When I hear the words IT department, it brings me right back to 1970," says Mark Lutchen, former global CIO of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and currently senior practice partner for PwC's IT Effectiveness Initiative. He is also the author of Managing IT as a Business, one of the most useful books on IT management written in the past ten years.

Any organization that still refers to its information technology portfolio as the "IT department" is already in trouble, according to Lutchen. A "department" suggests a separate function, something that lives somewhere else.

"IT is so completely integrated into the business that it's inescapable. You cannot shut it off. You cannot move away from it. You cannot operate without it," he says.

Ideally, the CIO should function as the CEO's technology agent. The CIO is a representative of the CEO's vision, a proxy acting on the CEO's behalf.

"But the concept of the CIO serving as the CEO's proxy only works when the CEO accepts the CIO as an equal," says Lutchen. "How can I give you my proxy if I don't believe that you're just as capable as I am of making the right decisions?"

Lutchen makes an excellent point. Now I will take it a step further. A crucial part of the CEO's job is finding a CIO that he or she trusts to act as a proxy.

Allow me state this more clearly: if you do not trust your CIO to serve as your proxy, you should fire your CIO and find one you can trust to be your eyes, your ears, and your brain. ...