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"IT today is supporting more business processes than backend processes.  Today, IT has earned a stake at the table, has gone away from the bits and bytes, and is, more than ever, a partner to the business."

-Frank Modruson, CIO of Accenture Ltd., "What's Next for IT?", The Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2007.

"In the digital world, I think we have the inverse effect, where something that is shared can become more valuable than something that is closely held, as long as it is both shared and contributed to by everybody who is sharing in it."

- Mark Shuttleworth, Founder of Ubuntu Linux; Excerpt from "The Grill: Mark Shuttleworth", Computerworld, June 11, 2007

Interesting observation by Karl Rove as well as good commentary by Charles Cooper.

In an illuminating interview published in the June 4 issue of The New Yorker, White House political aide Karl Rove suggested that a nexus exists between the spread of technology and a centrist-conservative outlook on the world.

"There are two or three societal trends that are driving us in an increasingly deep center-right posture," Rove told the magazine. "One of them is the power of the computer chip. Do you know how many people's principal source of income is eBay? Seven hundred thousand."

"If you think you need filtering technologies to be sure your employees aren't damaging your reputation, that's a management problem, not a technology one.  If employees can't be trusted, technology is the least of your problems."

- Tim Bray, Director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems Inc., "Keeping Secrets in a WikiBlogTubeSpace World", ComputerWorld, March 19, 2007

"Less and less, we're competing based on terms of functionality (open source CMS or not). Not features but ease of use, aesthetics, support, security, community, and documentation...will be critical differentiators."

- Dries Buytaert, "State of Drupal", 2007 Open Source CMS Summit and DrupalCon, Yahoo! Campus
 

"Why have IT report to accounting?  You show me a company where the CIO reports to the CFO, and I'll show you a company lagging in its industry in the use of technology."

- Benjamin Salzmann, Acuity CEO, Quoted in "CIO to CEO: If You Want to Move Up", ComputerWorld, December 18, 2006

"Leadership. Communication. Strategy. Diplomacy. Money. Technology. Industry. These are the things IT leaders must master."

- Frank Hayes, "Frankly Speaking: IT Unleashed", Computerworld, December 11, 2006

"IT has no value whatsoever if you can't help people carry out their missions."

- Chris Niedermayer, "Go with the grain", Government Computer News, May 2, 2005

"In today’s global economy, a company’s success or failure may hinge on the ability to implement technology to remain competitive. The business managers of tomorrow must be able to see the big picture while also understanding the nuts and bolts that keep everything running. The type of thinking that was once left to technologists is now essential for business managers."

C.J. Kelly, "Can a Manager Be a Techie and Survive?", Computerworld, November 20, 2006

C.J. Kelly is the alias for a security manager that wishes to hide her real name and employer in her articles for Computerworld.

Those in IT with any ambition to move up the ranks need to understand their organization's business better, obviously. What isn't acknowledged so readily by management is the need for managers to know IT better.