Running head: PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A CIO
             This paper is an exploratory study to determine various methods for evaluating the performance of a chief information officer (CIO) in a business organization. The paper is organized as following: (a) role of a CIO in an organization, (b) essential qualities for a CIO to succeed, (c) how does a CIO 'contribute' in an organization, (d) how to evaluate the performance of a CIO, and (e) summary.
             A CIO is a senior management position in an organization reporting to the highest management echelon within the organization like the CEO, COO, CFO, President or Vice President. Ideally, CIO's broad role is to ensure availability of infrastructure, design systems to integrate various information resources, business processes within and outside the organization in order to achieve business objectives, "define information to be used in the organization, set information policy and standards and maintain management control over all information resources." (Davenport, T.H., 1995, 15th May, Computer World)
             Essential qualities for a CIO to succeed
             The very nature of a CIO's job demands a wide range of skill sets in order to adequately address various areas of concern which lies under a CIO's purview. The perfect CIO must
             " possess leadership skills, exceptional people skills, political prowess, a broad business view, change management skills and, of course, very sound knowledge of technology and it's application." (Koch, C., 1996, 15th February, CIO magazine). The modern CIO simply cannot afford to believe that "trust could be built solely on his/her competence to get the technology job done." The modern CIO must acknowledge and accept his role in the organization as that of a leader who is "champion of change" and one who has "creativity and vision" (Garner, R., 1999, Computer World) to contribute to the b...