Today's CIOs must have the skills of a politician and diplomat as well as the leadership abilities to innovate and deliver business value to their organisation.

That was the conclusion of a panel of US CIOs at a special two-day 'CIO bootcamp' at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas aimed at preparing aspiring and new senior executives for the top job in IT.

Dick Hudson, CIO of undersea cable company Global Marine, said communication and interpersonal skills are vital to dealing with all parts of the business.

"It is important to develop world class political skill sets. You need to be an accomplished politician, diplomat and a leader who provides inspiration," he said.

Bruce Barnes, CIO of Nationwide Financial Services said CIOs need to be able to pick the right projects, deliver them at the right time, and communicate realistic levels of expectation to the business.

"The success comes when IT helps change business behaviour," he said.

Topics at the bootcamp included outsourcing and offshoring, security, compliance, presenting return on investment calculations to the "suits" and managing the real-time enterprise.

Tom Mantz, CIO of industrial gases firm Praxair said it is down to the CIO to make sure that IT sits at the top table and makes a difference to the business.

"IT matters if and only if we as CIOs continue to innovate and work with our business peers to deliver new value to our organisations," he said. "When that stops, then IT doesn't matter and you don't matter."