CIOs in crisis

The term chief information officer means a lot of things to a lot of people, especially in times of turbulence. Some pundits have noticed an identity crisis among CIOs, who feel increasingly pressured to do everything from prevent internal fraud to fixing the CEO's BlackBerry.

People talk about CIO 2.0 these days, but no one is really sure what it means--except that the job is getting tougher and whole lot more complex. When it comes to top financial institutions, this is especially true. Chances are your top information guy is running all out seven days a week. Let's face it, success on Wall Street really boils down to information. You cannot get enough of it, fast enough. Of course, it all has to be logically served. 

So just to stay above water you've got a lot of work to do. One consultant offers a list of issues you've got to get educated on to stay on top of your game in 2008: fraud detection and compliance; mobile banking 2.0; collaborative software; resource management; and negotiation skills.

The last one might surprise you. But if you buy that all projects will be vulnerable in these tough times, you're going to need to know how to fight for them, directly or behind the scenes. - Jim