CIO Awards: Improvements in Business and Leadership Recognised

Over the past years, the community of business leaders have gradually adapted the concept of CIO. The image of CIOs has been emphasised as leaders and managers of business development strategies but not technology managers. This was seen via the 2005 CIO conference and awards , which was held first in Vietnam by the International Data Group (IDG) in co-operation with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The event aims to honour great contributions of CIOs to the betterment of their organisations and businesses.

 

This year, IDG will present awards for excellent CIOs in Indochina countries on a basis of nomination and direct interview. The nomination form is similar to the form for Asia-Pacific with some adjustments in accordance with conditions of the countries in the region. The form will be sent to those units in both the State-owned and private sectors, which have met all the standards. The jury with representatives from the Government, non-governmental organisations of Vietnam and foreign countries, will interview candidates directly to select ten outstanding CIOs, who have had contributions and ideas to the development of their enterprises and organisations. Accordingly, CIOs in finance and insurance, banking, transportation, energy, textile, garment and footwear, trade, security, fisheries, radio and television, education and training, engineering and manufacturing, pharmacy, health, multimedia and publishing will be awarded.

 

Criteria for the selection of CIOs include strategic influence, customer influence, financial influence and social influence. Based on the criteria, the organisers will gather concrete information about enterprises via votes. Representatives from IDG Vietnam said that the jury would pay careful attention to creativity and optimum in activities of organisations enterprises with information technology application, instead of presentation of solutions in hardware and software installation. This means that CIO awards will recognise improvements in business and leadership. It is not simply a technological award.

 

Apart from these above mentioned criteria, the jury will interview directly candidates and refer to information technology application projects of enterprises where candidates work. At the same time, candidates as CIOs of their enterprises will have to answer questions about opportunities and challenges for their enterprises when Vietnam joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO).