InformationWeek

May 18, 1999

I am a young technology manager with six years of experience. I managed a computer operations department for a financial company and I am currently managing the network and telecom department (10 staff members) for a large international organization. I have always looked for ways to become more involved in the business aspect of the company. Although I try to offer my company more than just support, it seems difficult to make a transition from an "operations" manager to a "business" manager. I believe I can be a tremendous asset whenever technology and business requirements meet but have not been given the opportunity. I have been pressuring my CIO for opportunities; he has acknowledged my requests but has yet to provide me with anything. Should I continue to pursue these goals? Am I handling this correctly or should I be looking to accomplish this a different way?

Your approach is dead-on--keep the pressure on your CIO. The only other thing you need to be doing is exploring outside opportunities. The operations to business/applications integration role is a challenging transition, but certainly not an impossible one. The fact is that other organizations have a tendency to recognize hidden assets more so than the current company you're with. With your educational base and industry knowledge, I'm very confident that financial-services companies would be very interested in exploring your background.

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