Background for a CIO

Recently we had a discussion in one of my classes that focused on a young business manager (named Claire) who was offered a high-level executive position of managing a company's entire R & D efforts.  Claire did not have an engineering background, so was at best only qualified to serve as a director for the efforts, and at worst was completely over her head.  The assignment was to determine whether or not Claire should take the position.  There was little discussion over whether or not she could do her job adequately, instead discussion focused on what Claire needed to do in order to be successful.

Since most companies (and most MBA students) would have conniptions at the thought of CFOs with little to no knowledge of finance or COOs with little to no knowledge of operations, why do we find it acceptable to have CIOs with little to no knowledge of information technology?

I think at least part of it has to do with the fact that people in technology seem to value knowledge of technology over everything else.  There are plenty of technologists, at least in the software development realm, who spend a lot of time and energy studying patterns, practices, languages, etc.  Yet being an effective technologist goes beyond his or her skill in writing software, configuring servers, setting up networks, etc.  Technologists must also work at communicating technical needs with non-technical people and focus on solving problems with technology, rather than choosing technologies that solve problems.

This is not a small change to make.  If technologists were to truly make this shift, conversations about technology (such as user group meetings) would start with business contexts, job interviews would focus on problem-solving skills more than specific technology implementations, and technologists would spend as much free time learning about finance and operations management as they do new technologies.  Moving in this direction would almost certainly help align IT and business objectives.

If we were to make this shift, companies would still need pure technologists, since technology changes so quickly we will need people who can keep up with these changes.  However, we need to do a better job developing the business skills of our technology professionals.  One way to do this would be to encourage more business training (like the MBA) for IT professionals, and make such training required for many management positions.  What else can IT professionals do to encourage business-context thinking in our day-to-day work?

Does MBA training encourage poor decision-making?

During my first year of my MBA studies, I felt pretty good about what I was learning.  I was reading about finance, economics, operations management, marketing, change management, and many other things that any good business leader ought to know.  Then I took a class in information technology, a subject with which I am somewhat familiar.  I thought that the class was actually pretty good - it gave students without a background in IT a good sense of the decisions an IT manager must make on a day-to-day basis.

However, getting a good sense of the types of decisions an IT manager must make and being able to make those decisions are two completely different things.  Yet many of our assignments involved us reading about a typical scenario and writing recommendations to solve the problems outlined in that scenario, and led the students to believe that IT management is something that any skilled manager can do well.

So I looked back on many of my other courses to see if this course was atypical; and it was not.  Reading cases and coming up with recommendations was a common practice in most of my MBA courses.  It scares me a bit to think of the recommendations I confidently made to solve real-world problems with only a modicum of knowledge in the subject of the class.  Unfortunately, I've frequently observed since then other students making recommendations without knowing the subject matter.  Ok, I'll admit, I continue to do so as well.  It's what MBA students do.

What's the alternative?  I still think that the subject matter taught in a typical MBA program is still worth teaching and that an MBA is still worth obtaining for anyone wishing to go into business management, so merely eliminating the MBA is not the answer.  But is there another approach that might work better?

One possible alternative I've come up with is to train MBA students to find and evaluate information rather than interpreting and applying information.  Managers are not always going to have reliable sources of information, so being able to gather useful information should be paramount in any training.

I would also suggest that more time is spent giving students a glimpse of the subject matter beyond what is covered in the class.  It is important to get a foundation in most business subjects, but I would argue that it's more important to know what you don't know, to get a better feel for what questions to ask when the inevitable knowledge gaps arise.

Does anyone else have any suggestions on how MBA students can avoid the "recommendation trap" (for lack of a better phrase) that I described above?

Should programmers get an MBA?

One question that I see among a few computer programmers these days is whether or not they should go back to school to get their MBA.  The answer really depends on what he or she wants to do in their career in the next five years.

Before I get any further into this, let me first describe what an MBA can (and can't) do.  The MBA is a very general degree focused on giving business decision makers the background they need in order to make their business thrive.  MBA programs cover high-level topics such as accounting, finance, operations management, economics, and business strategy.  Programmers, on the other hand, often need to get well acquainted with the details of the day-to-day operations that keep a business growing.  The two areas aren't completely separate, but they don't go hand-in-hand, either.

Getting back to the original question, programmers who wish become managers at some point in their careers will find knowledge gained from getting an MBA useful.  No degree should be mandatory for any position, since most knowledge can be gained through other means, but I couldn't imagine trying to be a manager without the skills I've gained from my MBA studies.  Too many people assume that being good at a job makes one qualified to manage others doing that job, which is absolutely not true.  Managing and doing are two completely different skill sets and have completely different knowledge required.  The MBA can help fill in some gaps in management skills.

For the non-managing programmer, I could see how an MBA could help a programmer understand business requirements (which was my original intent for getting mine), since the degree is about the high-level functioning of business.  I can also see why an MBA degree is strongly desired to work in the large consulting companies, since the degree not only gives you the tools to speak with business stakeholders but also helps prepare the student for project management.  I'm not convinced that the MBA is the best use of time and money for a programmer with these career goals, though.  The fit isn't bad, but there are other alternatives out there, such as PMP certifications or industry-specific degrees.

Many people look to MBA degrees as a way to help avoid unemployment.  I can't think of a worse reason for a programmer to get this degree.  (Well, maybe that's not true.  I can think of worse reasons to get an MBA.  Most of them wouldn't be considered by someone seriously considering the degree, though.)  The competition for jobs seems to be a bit stiffer for MBA grads than for experienced programmers with knowledge of the latest "hot" technology.  In fact, programmers who wish to remain programming after getting their MBA might find job hunting tougher due to the perception of being over-qualified.  Programmers should also think very carefully about spending significant amounts of time away from technology-specific studies.  Technology is changing all of the time.  Much of it should be easy for any IT professional to pick up due to its similarity to previous technologies, but some of it is not.  While it is not impossible to keep up with technology while studying for an MBA, it is not an undertaking that can be done by everyone.

In the end, it was worth it for me to get my MBA because I'm very interested in business strategy, and my MBA helps me understand issues related to management and strategy that I might not have as a pure programmer.  Also, I'm not as interested in specific technologies as I am in finding the right solution to solve problems.  That doesn't mean that the degree is right for every programmer, but what course of study is?