With technology now widely viewed as a key -- even, in some cases, the key -- to business success, you might expect that boards would be aggressively courting CIOs. But that's not the case. Last year, public relations firm Burson-Marsteller checked with more than 3,000 businesses, including the Fortune Global 500, to see how many had installed CIOs on their boards of directors. The answer: a depressing 5% (see QuickLink 45626).

Businesses that do have CIOs on their boards of directors tend to outperform their competitors, with profits averaging 6.4% above their industry averages, according to the study, which included senior IT executives such as vice presidents within the CIO category.

The argument for and against [summary]

• Board breakdown is a strong indication of a CEO's priorities
  
• But, 60% of CIO's report to the CFO or COO
  
• Governance priorities at the board level should include issues about technology
  
• Board membership tends to generates networking opportunities
  
• Most CIO's tend to speak in terms of technology and not business
  
• However, they tend to think across the organization, about all functions of a business
  
• So it's important for CIO's to assert themselves concerning business matters, and to do so in business terms