In a Q&A in the current edition of PricewaterhouseCoopers's quarterly Technology Forecast, EMC Corp. CIO Sanjay Mirchandani shares his views on how the cloud is accelerating the repositioning of IT to support business development and innovation. Cloud computing, the self-described "career businessperson" tells PwC, is enabling IT to be more responsive to the business. At EMC, members of the IT team are responsible for running core integration projects, "and they're seen as subject matter experts."

After a three-year downturn, it was only a matter of time before the economy picked up, business expanded and demand for IT workers accelerated.

For those who might question the strength of the economic recovery, consider these statistics from a recent Motley Fool article revenue for the S&P 500 is more than $250 billion higher over the past 12 months than it was in 2007. Meanwhile, corporate profits now represent 9.5 percent of GDP, well above the 6.0 percent average since 1947 and one of the highest percentages recorded since then.

My wife and I are hooked on a television show called, “Undercover Boss”.  In this show an upper level executive, usually the CEO, of a company will “go undercover” and perform some of the lower entry level jobs in his company.  The show is very well done and the boss always uncovers the human element of what makes his company great.

For those who reside outside the Northeast U.S. or aren't familiar with the situation, Cablevision and Fox are in a heated dispute over renewal fees to broadcast a handful of Fox stations to millions of Cablevision subscribers in New York and New Jersey. Cablevision claims that Fox wants more than $150 million to carry WNYW, WWOR and WTFX, more than double its previous fees.

As a Cablevision subscriber, the disagreement between the two companies goes beyond being inconvenient and annoying. Since the blackout began, Cablevision has been running the equivalent of infomercials that are broadcast each time you turn on the service, blasting Fox for its greed and stubbornness. As a viewer, it's aggravating to have to see this every time you turn on the TV. What's even more bothersome is that Cablevision is now encouraging its viewers to petition lawmakers to intervene.

To be sure, CIOs should have a good understanding about technology and strong business acumen in order to be successful in their roles. But to truly be an effective leader, CIOs must have solid people skills, communicate well and be great at developing partnerships with employees, business peers and other constituents, according to the authors of a new book on the topic.

In The CIO Edge: Seven Leadership Skills You Need to Drive Results (Harvard Business Review Press, Nov. 2010, $29.95), co-authors Graham Waller (Vice President and Executive Partner with Gartner Executive Programs), George Hallenbeck (Director, Intellectual Property Development, Korn/Ferry Leadership) and Karen Rubenstrunk (formerly with Korn/Ferry's CIO practice) examine the key talents CIOs require and how those can be developed.

By Laton McCartney

We’ve been through this before, a number of times. Some new technology comes thundering over the horizon, and CIOs understandably ask themselves: “What does it mean for me and my job?”