IT professionals need to become business leaders first and technologists second

Execution plays a vital role in IT. I also feel that CIO should align the IT resources with the organization business strategies and priorities which will build a stronger and more agile IT workforce. The ultimate result will be services that are more efficient, transparent and responsive to the organization. 

What is the role of the CIO/IT Director?

The role of the CIO/IT Director is to act as the business owner for IT, ensuring that whatever competitive advantage or operational efficiency that might exist, is identified, prioritised and implemented. With the increasing emergence of ubiquitous technology, the danger is that for IT leaders who fail to grasp the challenge, they will be usurped by their colleagues in finance who albeit mistakenly believe good IT is easy and who will then take those decisions unilaterally, leading to poor IT decisions. In my opinion, it is the age old argument between "IT and the business", it is a misnomer. You do not hear "Sales and the business" or "Finance and the business", IT leaders need to wise up and realise they ARE the business and take ownership, be business leaders first and technologists second, just like their boardroom colleagues are in their respective disciplines.
Unless you can achieve this, then you are the biggest threat to the long term health of IT in your business.

Should CIO report to CFO?

Increasingly I've noticed that CFO are taking over the overall control of IT department & making the CIO report into the CFO. I guess the thought process is that in this competitive market CFO wants to keep a control on IT budget and make sure every penny is spent wisely. However I wonder if every IT initiative can be looked at keeping short time benefits in mind, does the financial background of CFO enables them to look at bigger picture or long term goal? I strongly believe few large IT initiative cannot be always looked at from the profit & loss point of view rather long term returns, business benefits and efficiency. Sometimes its good and bad to roll IT into CFO organization however it largely depends on the business model and objective where an organization want to go.