Sir Terry Leahy, the man responsible for transforming Tesco into the world’s third-largest retailer with sales exceeding £60 billion, is set to retire early next year after fourteen years as chief executive. His replacement is fellow scouser Philip Clarke, Tesco’s current chief information officer (CIO), who is responsible for overseeing the supermarket chain’s IT and computer systems, amongst other things.
The appointment, which came as little surprise in the City, is only one example of a modern trend of businesses promoting CIOs to the role of chief executive officer. As companies become more reliant on technology to revamp their business, CIOs now have unprecedented visibility over the running of the company, giving them the platform needed for promotion. Indeed, dozens of former CIOs now fill the top corporate job as head of operations, including Peter McCann at Fidelity and Reliance Industries’ Ashish Chauhan, who will be familiar to cricket lovers as CEO of the Indian Premier League side Mumbai Indians.
We are now in a world where the best CIOs do not stay as CIOs. As technology plays an ever-more important role in the development of business, expect the position of CEO to be filled by individuals coming from a CIO background. Philip Clarke is not the first to make the leap, and he certainly won’t be the last. The old joke that CIO stands for ‘Career Is Over’, simply no longer applies to modern business.
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From CIO to CEO: The move has begun
Posted by chameleon-admin July 12 2010 11:59am