Overheard: Leveraging the role of the CIO

In a move apparently designed to reduce poor alignment and create strategic opportunity, Bausch & Lomb, the eye care company, has merged its customer service and information technology functions together under CIO Alan Farnsworth. Michael Krigsman, Bausch & Lomb reduces IT boundaries (Alan Farnsworth pictured left)

It’s heeeerrrre.

Is this the first harbinger of what the future holds for CIOs around the world? Was Nicholas Carr right after all? Has IT become so integrated into business that the CIO not only doesn’t have to have a technical background — he also has to have a second job within the company?