Sateesh Lele has just accepted the riskiest job of an otherwise conventional CIO career. Lele, who has served as CIO at PepsiCo's FritoLay, Avon Products, and General Motors Europe, will build the IT infrastructure for a startup that plans to make built-to-order cars for affluent Generation-Xers. "I know it's not going to be a walk in the park," Lele says.

That's for sure. Build-To-Order, the brainchild of CarsDirect.com founder Scott Painter, faces a bumpy road. Painter, who serves as chairman, says the company will be like the Dell Computer of the automotive industry, bypassing dealerships and delivering cars to consumers within days of their orders. But Kevin Purty, research director of automotive strategies at AMR Research, doesn't see how a company making just 35,000 vehicles a year at $35,000 each can turn a profit, considering manufacturing and liability issues. "Automotive isn't about the Dell model," Purty says. "The company will have to service vehicles, provide warranties, and do crash testing just like the big automotive companies."

Painter and Lele are out to prove the naysayers wrong. The company has received $25 million in funding from AK Steele, Deloitte & Touche, and Formula One race-car manufacturer TWR Group. It still needs to raise another $360 million to reach its goal. Lele is charged with putting the infrastructure in place to begin production in 2005. "For the average CIO, maintenance makes up 80% of the budget," he says. "To use 100% of the budget for new development is a real high."