Straight to the Top: Becoming a World-Class CIO

"Gregory Smith has written the definitive work on how to achieve leadership success in IT. This well-written and carefully researched book is a must-read for any IT professional with aspirations toward the top IT spot. Years from now, seasoned IT leaders will be crediting Smith's book with playing a role in their success."
—Martha Heller, Managing Director, IT Leadership Practice, Z Resource Group, and cofounder, CIO Executive Council

"Wow! Put all the tips, advice, and strategies in this book to use now. The road to the top is rarely straight—follow Gregory's advice and the path will reveal itself to you!"
—John R. Sullivan, CIO, AARP

"While most professions have a distinct road map to the top, there is no standard career path to becoming a CIO. Smith addresses this unique challenge and provides aspiring CIOs with encouragement, advice, and essential skills based on years of his own and other CIOs' cumulative experience -- an important effort for the profession that Smith's fellow members in the CIO Executive Council embrace and applaud."
—Mark Hall, General Manager of the CIO Executive Council

"Teaching students what a CIO really does has been tough. We've had to choose between anecdotal treatments based on trade press articles and integrated academic frameworks that offer little in the way of lived experiences. Greg's book fixes that. By organizing interviews with leading technology executives, trade press reports, and his own experiences as a CIO, he provides an organized and comprehensive view of the job and its important role in modern organizations."
—Fred Collopy, PHD, Professor and Chair of Information Systems and Professor of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Interesting, 2007-10-31
A pretty good read. Sometimes the author really puffs himself up and that became rather annoying at times. He could leave those parts out of the book and it would be just as good if not better. If you can see past his huge ego, the style is interesting enough to finish the book in two or three sittings. I would have given it more stars w/o this flaw.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Great Book for Aspiring CIOs and IT Leaders, 2007-08-10
This book serves as a great roadmap to becoming a top IT leader, because it covers the entire spectrum of topics that one should either know or be aware of in his or her quest to become a CIO. Many IT publications may provide articles on some of the topics covered in the book (such as how to manage expectations with your staff), but this book is unique in a number of ways:

1) It is written from first hand knowledge and experience. Every topic, ranging from Methodologies, to IT Governance, to Contract Negotiation includes a "What Did I Do to Prepare?" section, where Gregory candidly recounts examples of things he did in those categories.
2) Every section of the book provides recommendations and advice for aspiring CIOs.
3) Some topics (such as learning golf for business purposes) may not have been obvious for aspiring CIOs. Topics such as learning golf for business is rarely, if ever, in trade magazines.
4) All of the information in the book is well referenced, and there are very interesting statistics gathered from impressive sources.

I actually just finished taking a Graduate level course taught by Gregory himself using this book. I can say that Gregory is a very knowledgeable, experienced, candid, and friendly guy, and the information in the book and the tone of this book demonstrates that.

With his advice and the tips from this book, I have already made a few improvements to my personal IT career path. I feel that most people's IT careers can benefit, too, with the advice from a solid mentor and tips from this book. I highly recommend this book!



1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Very helpful with lots of insight, 2007-01-10
I'm not too sure about current CIOs, but this book proves to be very informative and concise for a junior IT executive like me aiming for the top IT post. Unlike some IT books which focus on stories and leaving you to ponder how you can relate to them, this gem of a book addresses key issues and tells you straight to the point what CIOs of established companies feel and how they react to these issues. In addition, Smith has given his own input and experience in the form of easy-to-follow guidelines which anyone can put to use immediately.

I'm glad I did not miss this book.


6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent career guide!!!, 2006-09-26
When I was offered the job of CIO, I only had 1 week to prepare for the interview. I purchased this book immediately based on the exerpts that I read on line. What an amazing and helpful book. Mr. Smith's pointers and recommendations helped me tremendously! It assisted in preparing me for the interview and even though I am now working as a CIO I still review it. I liked his points on the IT Governance Structure document - somthing that I plan to put in place here, I also read with interest his tips on the first 100 days in the job. I also like the statistical data that were included in each chapter. What was also particularly helpful were his personal experience. I like how the book gives direction to aspiring CIOs and new CIOs. I highly recommend this book.


8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

More credible than informative, 2006-09-07
The information contained in this book are not exactly revolutionary. You want to be a CIO? Get an MBA from top notch school, be technically proficient, get project management experience, work on large scale projects, get experience with large scale budgets, and work on your soft (communication and interpsonal) skills.

What sets this book apart from other books with similar title is the source of its information. They are from CIOs and recruiters who have experience placing CIOs.

Too often, many books on becoming a CIO are based on guesses and speculations of the authors who do not have full comprehension of the topic. The author of this book purposely do not use his own conclusions, he merely gathers information and analyze them in an objective fashion.

If you want to read a book on becoming a CIO based on a solid research and survey of relevant professionals, then this book will provide credible, albeit common sense, suggestions.

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