In the past 2-3 decades IT has become pervasive in the Indian organizations as people gradually realize the importance of IT to drive their business growth. Giving the keynote on day three of Interop Mumbai 2010, Ramanath L Ram, Vice President and Business Head, Wipro Consulting Services talked about the changed role of a CIO as a transformational agent. "The CIO's position in an organization is increasingly becoming strategic as we see more than 41 percent of CIOs now report directly to the CEO." Ram opined.

In the age of agility, CIOs are agents of change and business transformation. New opportunities for leadership arise as organizations respond to evolving markets and global pressures. Emergence of IT as an irreplaceable feature of today's competitive landscape has propelled the CIO from a supporting role into a leading role.

"Tomorrow's CIOs will find themselves coping with new duties, greater responsibilities and higher expectations from the CEO as many CEOs now view their CIO as organization's primary change agent. CIOs would assume leadership roles in product innovation and the opening of new markets. CIOs today have genuinely holistic view of the enterprise. Since IT is central to every corporate process improvement initiative, CIOs have already developed many of the critical leadership and executive skills necessary to serve as agents of change and business transformation," Ram said.

According to Ram, there are three types of CIOs—functional heads, transformational heads and business strategist. While each of these skills is essential for the CIOs, typically we've seen most CIOs taking just a functional head role. However, with the changing market dynamics, apart from acting just as functional heads, CIOs also need to take up the roles of transformational heads and business strategists.