Why Would Carl Williams Ask a Non-Technical Manager to Assume the Cio Position?

The American University in Cairo

School of Business

Department of Management

MOIS 508

DR. Sami Akabawy

Spring 2012

Assignment #1

(Chap. 1,2 &3)

Chapter 1:

* Why would Carl Williams ask a non-technical manager to assume the CIO position?

- For a CIO to be successful, especially at times when IT presents a problem area, he or she has to have more than just solid IT background. The CIO needs to have good management skills; they need to be a fixer. Jim Barton has the required management skills, he is considered as a great manager at IVK; he also had a lot of ideas regarding how IT should be run, and he used to critic Davies, the former CIO, on how to do his job. Therefore, he was a good candidate for this position because the company actually needed a good manager not a good technical.

* If you were Jim Barton, would you take the job?

- Yes, I would take the job. It is definitely a great challenge for someone with no IT background to become the CIO; however, a good manager should be able to run the business without having the deep knowledge of the matter. I would get the required background through research and learning.

* What do the IVK Corporation exhibits tell you about the current state of the company? Given this information, what does IVK need from a new management team under CEO Carl Williams?

- IVK statements show that the company has grown recently; however, it was not well planned and that is showing in the huge increase in the operating expenses. This growth was not done efficiently which lead to the decrease in net income despite the increase in total service revenue.

- The new management team should focus on making proper planning as well as new strategies that focus on managing the operations and resources efficiently and effectively in order to decrease the operating expense and increase the net income.

Chapter 2:

* How do you interpret the kid's advice, "You've got to know what you don't know"?

- I think what the phrase means is that in order to become a good leader, you have to know your capabilities and your deficiencies and to be honest with yourself, especially when embarking on a new job you have to position yourself correctly and to give good impression to your employees. You have to know what is it that you lack and either try to learn about it or search for ways that your team could cover for the capabilities that you lack. The kid mainly