MBA to become CIO

Hello sir I want to become Chief Information Officer so MBA is required for this position or not. please provide me information about this.

[Pathak]

Progressing you career to a management and then board-level role is determined by a number of factors, most of which depend on you.

Goals

If you want to become a super-hot programmer, then you're likely not in the frame of mind to advance up the management chain.

You'd need to want to work your way into the business side to the point where your contribution can indirectly or directly affect the sales/profit of the company through product/technology decisions and strategy.

People Skills

How are you with people

Can you communicate effectively with your peers to achieve results

Can you coach and empower talented team members to achieve their goals

Can you start conversations with people at the, e.g. coffee machine, and thus build a professional social network within the company

Can you work out who is a mover-and-shaker within the company, build interest with them and model their behaviour

Education

You don't need to have an MBA to get to the top - many CxO's do not - but it really helps you to understand what having an MBA would have taught you.

An understanding of accounting, business laws, economics, operations, resourcing and business finance would help.

You can learn these by yourself or go to night school, etc.

Some corporations will sponsor a sabbatical year for you to go get an MBA, but there'd need to see the value of doing so.

Opportunity

Sometimes, it seems to come down to being in the right place at the right time and making sure that the right people know about it.