Eurocio Executive Education Programme

1. Introduction and context 

European CIO Association 

Executive Education Programme 

1.1. History: the e-‐skills and ICT professionalism problem 

It is widely recognised that across Europe the econo-‐ 

mies are facing severe shortages of e-‐skills for years to 

come. This situation is impacting the ICT industry 

(“ICT supply”) as well as the ICT users (“ICT demand”) 

organisations, which the European CIO Association 

(“EuroCIO”) represents. In addition to the overall skills 

shortage, this leads to a war for talent in the labour 

market, which our organisations and beyond that our 

economies are suffering from. 

This problem is further aggravated due to the fact that 

for a large percentage of ICT job positions, both ICT 

supply and ICT demand organisations had to compro-‐ 

mise and fill those positions with people not fully ade-‐ 


quately trained for the requirements of the jobs at hand. All this leads to a lack of professionalism of the 

ICT profession as a whole. 

Bodies of 

Knowledge 

Standards 

1.2. Activities of European Commission 

Support and Improve Quality of 

Europass CV 

(inc ICT 

extensions) 

Portfolio of 

Evidence 

Informal 

Learning 

Non-formal 

Learning 

Certifications 

Education 

providers 

Aligned with 

National Competence 

Frameworks 

Qualifications National Qualification 

Frameworks 

EQF 

Aligned with 

ICT 

Practitioners 

Definition 

Consultancy 

Foundational 

ICT Body of 

Knowledge 

define 

Marketing 

European e- 

Competence 

Framework 

Employment 

Key Users 

Agencies 

Operator 

use 

Role Profiles 

define 

Employers 

Career 

Development 

Streams 

Professionals Associations Codes of Ethics/ 

Conduct 

Aligned with 

Industry / Academic / Government / Social Partners 

(e.g. via Special Interest Groups, Communities of Practice, Trade 

Unions, CEN Workshop on ICT Skills) 

define 

ICT Capability 

Analysis 

Common 

Guidelines 

Meta framework of Ethical Issues 

This very situation has long been recognized by the 

European Commission (“EC”) as a core stumbling bock 

to further economic growth in Europe. In the past years, 

the EC has focussed on 

-‐ research on the e-‐skills shortage issue 

-‐ the development of standards in order to pro-‐ 

mote comparability of skills and hence support the 

migration of e-‐skilled workers (e-‐Competence Frame-‐ 

work, e-‐Job Profile, e-‐Career Curricula, etc) 

-‐ awareness initiatives in order to promote e-‐ 

jobs across Europe. 

EuroCIO has become the Co-‐Lead on the European e-‐ 

Skills Association (“EeSA”), www.eskillsassociation.eu, 

which advices the EC on e-‐skills issues and priorities. Thus, the ICT demand community is able now to 

voice its e-‐skills and education needs directly to the EC via the EeSA. 

Consultations are ongoing at the EeSA on the priorities of the EC in the e-‐skills area up to 2020, the focus 

being laid upon the improvement of ICT professionalism across Europe (see above an overview diagram 

from the study on ICT professionalism by IVI and CEPIS). Standardisation efforts as the maintenance of 

the corresponding frameworks will continue, while a focus is being laid on certification and qualification 

schemes in the ICT domain. 

The fundamental standardisation effort of the EC in the e-‐skills area is the e-‐Competence Framework (e-‐ 

CF). All other standardisation activities are based upon the e-‐CF as a common framework to categorise e-‐ 

4 

ICT professionalism is core to create 

business value from IT investments 

Input: Capital 

ICT 

Professionalism 

IT 

Investment 

Business or 

Organization 

al Capability 

ICT 

Organisation 

al Capability 

Output: 

Business Value 

From: Study on European ICT Professionalism by IVI and CEPIS 

• The European 

Commission has 

recognised the 

severity of the ICT 

professionalism 

problem 

• An extensive study 

has been done by IVI 

and CEPIS to develop 

a model for promoting 

ICT professionalism 

• The European 

Commission is about 

the shape a multi-year 

ICT professionalism 

effort.

-‐ QUALITY initiative 

1.5. The EuroCIO educational eco-‐system and its layers 

The EuroCIO Educational Programme 

consists of an eco-‐system of three discrete 

layers forming a pyramid of education: 


-‐ Layer 1: Education of the top lev-‐ 

el in the pyramid of IT functions 

in organisations. The EuroCIO 

Executive MBA programme on 

Corporate Information Manage-‐ 

ment (“Business & IT”) aims at 

the high-‐potentials, future CIOs, 

top-‐consultants, etc. striving to 

obtain in their career the highest responsibilities in managing ICT departments, digital transfor-‐ 

mation or innovative business projects, in general leading to a C-‐level position in larger organisa-‐ 

tions. This layer 1 offering is intended both for experienced IT managers in need to broaden their 

scope with business knowledge, as well for business managers in need to understand better Cor-‐ 

porate Information Management. The program is a full MBA program but pays much attention on 

IT decision making. 

-‐ Layer 2: Multiple EuroCIO Professional Programmes in Corporate Information Management 

(“CIM”) disciplines. Layer 2 aims at the highest IT professionals, in general reporting to the CIO, 

enterprise architects, program or project managers, IT security and risk managers, demand-‐ or 

sourcing managers, etc. The education consists of a diversity of modules, all targeted at the high-‐ 

est levels of the ICT organisation. 

In the discussions within the CIO community thereafter, EuroCIO has defined 7 core Corporate In-‐ 

formation Management (“CIM”) disciplines to be the vital future skills areas necessary to effec-‐ 

tively manage ICT demand organisations. The 7 pillars of the so-‐called e-‐Competence Matrix (“e-‐ 

CM”) reflect the skills sets most critical to the ICT demand organisations and at the same time 

scarcest in the labour market. The structure of layer 2 is based upon the e-‐CM, which divides Cor-‐ 

porate Information Management 

into the seven disciplines most 

critical to the ICT user organisa-‐ 

tion. The aim of EuroCIO is to de-‐ 

velop a linked set of professional 

programmes in these seven dis-‐ 

ciplines. 

Out of these 7 disciplines, Enter-‐ 

prise Architecture has been iden-‐ 

tified as the most critical skill set 

to be addressed short-‐term. 

-‐ Layer 3: Modular EuroCIO Cours-‐ 

es on Corporate Information 

Management. This level aims at the more regular staff in a CIO department. In a first step, the 

modules offered here are taken from the modular layer 1 and 2 courses. Young professionals can 

take individual modules from existing programmes in layer 1 or 2, and later they can broaden 

their scope with additional modules and even obtain a degree in a higher-‐level course. 

All levels are logically linked to each other, using the same terminology, definitions, business and IT ap-‐ 

proach. All levels are compliant with the e-‐CF and related projects of the EC like job-‐profiles. Some content 

might be used in all layers, where appropriate.

1.6. Current activities: facts and figures 

1.6.1. Executive MBA in Business & IT 


At Layer 1, a first version of EuroCIO MBA for Corporate Information Management (CIM) has been devel-‐ 

oped in the Netherlands by Nyenrode Business School (business content), together with Delft University 

of Technology (IT context). It is named the “Executive MBA in Business & IT” (see also www.mbabit.eu). 

The program consists of nine modules, seven of which have roughly the same set-‐up. The workload of 

each of these seven modules is spread over six 

months. Each of these seven regular modules 

has three class sessions, each of which will be 

held on two consecutive days and will include 

evening sessions. In order to successfully com-‐ 

plete a module, attendance at all sessions is 

mandatory. The writing of a paper concludes 

each module. Between the classroom sessions 

there will be a month to six weeks for self-‐study, 

readings, discussions and writing. The sessions 

are enriched by case studies from CIOs, present-‐ 

ed also by CIOs. In particular the link between 

business and IT (systems, management, pro-‐ 

jects) is given attention. 

The modules are: Strategy and Organisation, Ownership of Enterprise and Governance, Demand and Sup-‐ 

ply Management, Leadership and Co-‐operation, Business Processes and Technology, Change Management 

and Human Capital, Risk and Finance, Marketing, Law, and Business ethics. All modules are lectured in the 

context of IT decision making. The program is concluded with the Master thesis. 

The set-‐up is made in such a way that business schools or technical universities in other countries can also 

educate some (or all) modules, provided they keep the structure of the program and obey the rules about 

the content of the modules and program, as defined by the CIO community. In this way students can at-‐ 

tend modules in different countries, thus also being familiarized with CIO case studies in different coun-‐ 

tries, while they will get one European certificate of the executive MBA. 

To govern the content of the program, a Program Review Board (PRB) has been established, chaired by a 

CIO, while CIOs and HR managers are member of the PRB. The aim of the PRB is to keep this MBA a really 

demand-‐driven program. Regular meetings between the PRB and professors aim at tuning the educational 

program on the requirements from the field. Additional to the PRB, a Quality Assurance group is being 

established, checking the program against the e-‐CF, the Curriculum Guidelines, AMBA and EQUIS re-‐ 

quirements as well as the requirements from the PRB. Furthermore, active CIOs are invited to give lec-‐ 

tures, so that students can study practical cases from the 

CIOs. 

The offering of an Executive MBA in Business & IT has 

been a tremendous success in the Dutch market. Sup-‐ 

ported by a large number of multinational companies, 

the ICT industry, Government and the Media, the pro-‐ 

gramme has reached a participation level, which exceeds 

initial expectations. 

Discussions are under way during 2012 to extend the 

Executive MBA in Business & IT into Germany and po-‐ 

tentially Italy. In the German-‐speaking area, this expan-‐ 

sion is done in close co-‐operation between EuroCIO and 

Layer 1: European Executive MBA in Business & IT 

(or CIM) 

! New Executive MBA for CIOs, ICT Managers and Senior Consultants. 

! Addressing the shortage for skilled ICT and Business managers with the right 

mix of knowledge and experience of Business, Innovation and ICT: 

! Set-up: 9 modules incl. thesis. Courses in English. First 2 modules started October 

2010 in the Netherlands. 

! Endorsed by (and part of) EuroCIO Educational Program 

! First MBA compliant with the European e-Competence Framework. 

! European accreditation/certification (AMBA, EQUIS) 

! Nationally supported by: CIO Platform, IT-industry, Government, together in the 

Stichting (= Foundation) CIO Academy 

! Sponsored by: Philips, DSM, RaboBank, Akzo-Nobel, HP, Cisco, PwC, IBM, SAP: 

! students, (financial) garantees, capacity/experience 

! Initiative executed by: Nyenrode (Business School) and Delft University (TopTech 

CIM MBA) 

! We have ca. 80 students in the program. 

! Next steps: European roll-out. 

There is a clear market for this type of 

educational offering. 

Participants 

Heineken 

Rabobank 

Koninklijke Kentalis 

Korps Mariniers 

Gemeente Haarlemermeer 

Roy Smeets Management 

Noctiluca 

Fincs/Symfiny BV 

QiFocus 

Philips IT Applications 

51 

Van Lanschot 33 Bankiers 

Cisco/Tandberg 

Acceptance 

Swets Information Services B.V. 

USG People 

Videojet 

ABN Amro 

Capgemini 100 

Trindex consultancy B.V. 

Pro 

80 

2 Consultancy 

KRN Fine Arts 

Verizon 

Triodos Bank 

COA 

DSW Zorgverzekeraar 

Tranzmissie 

Wolters Kluwer 

Vitrum 

Oct 10 Jan 11 Sep 11 Jan 12 Sep 12 

© Nyenrode Business Universiteit +31 (0)346 - 291 211 info@nyenrode.nl Find us on: 

VOICE, the German affiliated national body. The Technical University of Munich and the St. Gallen Busi-‐ 

ness School will be the participating academic institutions, given their close ties to the CIO community at 

large and VOICE specifically. This expansion project has already been mobilised and is under way. 

68 

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In a second wave of expansion, both the AICA CIO forum Italy, the Bocconi Business School Milano and the 

Politecnico Milano have opted for also participating in the expansion into Italy. Close attention has to be 

given to the specifics of the Italian education market, which favours smaller scale courses to large execu-‐ 

tive education programmes. 

1.6.2. Professional Programme in Business & Enterprise Architecture 

The second currently running project, located at Layer 2, is the establishment of a Professional Pro-‐ 

gramme in Business & Enterprise Architecture (BEA). See also www.eurocio.org/bea.htm for more details. 

The BEA Programme is the first programme of the Layer 2 offerings along the e-‐CM dimensions 1, driven 

by the priorities of the CIO community and the realisation that the effective enterprise architect is a very 

scarce resource and difficult to recruit. 

The BEA Programme is focusing on the professional, business and management elements rather than 

detailed technical design. The objective of the programme is to help enterprise architects acquire 

knowledge of enterprise architecture as well as 

enhance the required behavioural skills. It is in-‐ 

tended for professionals in charge of Enterprise 

Architecture or wishing to evolve towards this 

position. In line with the overall EuroCIO Execu-‐ 

tive Education program direction, this course aims 

at: 

-‐ Acquiring a clear understanding of busi-‐ 

ness strategy and the required business design to execute it successfully 

-‐ Understanding and mastering best practices in Enterprise Architecture 

-‐ Developing an up to date knowledge of other key disciplines in Information Management (such as 

Demand Management, Global Sourcing and Governance) and what they imply for an Enterprise 

Architect 

-‐ Developing “dual thinking” at the business-‐IT interface 

-‐ Empowering to drive true business change by exposure to all disciplines in CIM, always discussed 

in the architecture context, as well as soft skill development (e.g. communication, negotiation) 

It is a clear signal from the CIO community that this rounded skill set is rare and hence that our pro-‐ 

gramme develops skills which are highly relevant. 

The overall programme is scheduled over 18 months. Each module consists of 4 on-‐site working days (40 

hours equivalent) at the locations of the participating leading business schools: 

-‐ Henley Business School (Reading University), UK 

-‐ Ecole Centrale Paris, FR 

-‐ TiasNimbas Business School (Tilburg University), NL 

-‐ Technical University Munich, DE 

Due to the international nature of both participants and faculty the programme is taught in English. 

2. Stakeholder analysis 

The stakeholders of the EuroCIO Educational Programme are: 

-‐ CIOs of large organisations who need to improve the business knowledge and the skills of their IT 

staff, in order to better serve their organisations. 

-‐ European and National CIO bodies, which need new forms of education to bridge the cultural di-‐ 

vide between business and IT. These programmes are rare. 

1 Further Layer 2 programmes are to follow. The feedback from the CIO community suggests that the 

priorities are Security, Risk and Compliance as a next topic, as well as International Programme Manage-‐ 

ment.


-‐ Those who want to become a CIO or senior ICT managers want to participate in accredited and 

standardised education, providing them with a better opportunity to become certified in all Eu-‐ 

ropean member states. 

-‐ CEOs of large organisations who want to ensure that their organisations are on track in using the 

best IT opportunities, both internally, and in the communications and transactions with their 

customers. 

-‐ HR managers who recruit IT staff in organisations that want to be sure that the personnel they 

hire have the right knowledge and skills to perform well in the vacant functions. 

-‐ The supply side (the ICT industry) that has a stake, because the tools they provide require 

specific knowledge and skills in the organisations in order to apply these tools adequately 

(education of best practice). 

-‐ European member states that want to strengthen the competitive advantage of their 

internationally operating firms and the efficiency of their national institutions. 

-‐ The European Commission that wants to (1) improve the e-‐skills in European businesses and 

governments, in order to catch up with the US and Asia, and (2) improve the mobility of 

European IT managers. 

-‐ Universities and business schools in Europe that are being assisted in providing demand-‐driven 

educational programmes, ensuring them of a larger number of participants compared to supply-‐ 

driven programmes. 

The list above not only shows the manifold of stakeholders, but it also shows that most of them are very 

large bodies. Although the educational offering fits well into most parties’ strategies, their sheer size and 

complex structures will not guarantee a quick move forward. 

3. Co-‐operation model between the EuroCIO and the Business Schools 

3.1. EuroCIO’s role 

EuroCIO’s main role is to act on behalf of its direct and indirect (via the national bodies) members. It en-‐ 

deavours to create an educational offering that inherently meets the needs of these members. The Euro-‐ 

CIO Educational Programme as described above is of a nature, which even the largest EuroCIO members 

can only hardly create on their own, let alone the smaller ones. 

Given its clear benefits to the CIO community, EuroCIO has taken the task to establish the EuroCIO Educa-‐ 

tional Programme. In doing so, EuroCIO takes responsibility the following tasks: 

-‐ Collection of the requirement of its members in the area of Executive Education. This is done 

through surveys and via the EuroCIO HRW, in which representatives of the national bodies take a 

seat. 

-‐ Based upon these demand priorities, EuroCIO co-‐operates with leading European business 

schools to create the education offerings demanded by the CIO community. EuroCIO acts as su-‐ 

pervisor for all local initiatives, safeguarding standardisation and ensuring the quality and de-‐ 

mand-‐drive of the local implementations. 

-‐ EuroCIO determines the overall architecture of the education programme, ensuring that a multi-‐ 

national eco-‐system is developing for the benefit of the participants. 

-‐ EuroCIO determines the academic levels of the programme as required by the market as well as 

additional learning objectives. The latter are managed via appropriate governance bodies (see be-‐ 

low: PRB, PDB) with participants from EuroCIO’s network. CIO’s and representatives from their 

companies thus take responsibility in assuring that the course content match the CIO communi-‐ 

ty’s needs. 

-‐ EuroCIO is not a re-‐seller of educational products, but actively markets, together with the busi-‐ 

ness, the newly created executive education programmes to its members and the members of the 

affiliated national bodies. 

-‐ EuroCIO assures a sufficient quality level by appropriate quality assurance mechanisms. EuroCIO 

audits the schools on a regular basis to safeguard that the PRB’s demands are well implemented 

in each programme of the eco-‐system. 

-‐ EuroCIO offers facilities of coordination to the participating schools in activities that go beyond 

their individual reach, both academic and organisational.


The EuroCIO Education Programme takes a large part of its uniqueness from the active engagement of 

CIOs from the network: 

-‐ Driving the content of the courses via the Program Review Boards (direct CIO participation) and 

Program Design Boards (endorsement of experts from the CIO organisations) 

-‐ Participation in the delivery of the courses: presentations of case studies 

-‐ Promotion of the educational offering in their professional network, also beyond EuroCIO and the 

National Bodies 

3.2. The Business Schools’ role 

The business schools engage with EuroCIO to take up the CIO community’s needs and priorities and im-‐ 

plement adequate educational offerings: 

-‐ The business schools have the responsibility to develop and teach executive educational products 

in the area of CIM as prioritised by EuroCIO’s representatives, and as detailed in the Program Re-‐ 

view Boards. 

-‐ The business schools assure that the co-‐operation between them at a European level is seamless 

and create a true European learning experience for the benefit of the participants. 

-‐ The business schools support and augment EuroCIO’s marketing activities. 

-‐ The business schools subject themselves to EuroCIO’s quality assurance mechanisms. 

4. Governance 

4.1. Layer 1: Program Review Boards 

The Programme Review Board (“PRB”), which at this moment only exists in The Netherlands, will be ex-‐ 

tended to other participating countries/regions alongside the geographical expansion of the MBA pro-‐ 

gramme. 

The European PRB consists of one CIO per participating country, as well as the business schools of the 

EuroCIO eco-‐system. It overseas and governs the overall content and integrity of the MBA eco-‐system 

assuring it reflects the needs of the European CIO community. The European PRB meets once per year, 

In addition, local PRBs -‐one per participating country-‐ gather twice a year (fall and spring) and discuss the 

quality of the regional programme together with the local core teachers. PRBs represent the demand side 

of the programme and safeguard that the demand side’s requirements are fulfilled. The PRBs stimulate 

discussion about education, skills, and learning outcomes for CIO education, and should seek contact with 

relevant research groups in this professional field. 

4.2. Layer 2: Program Design Boards 

For the Layer 2 Professional Programmes, the content is governed through Program Design Boards 

(“PDB”), which do not operate at the CIO, but at the expert level. PDB’s are European by nature. For the 

BEA programme, the Program Design Board consists of the Enterprise Architects of Deutsche Telekom, 

Alcatel/Lucent, Bayer, Daimler and Ahold. The mandate of the Program Design Boards is identical to those 

of the local PRB’s for the MBA programme. 

4.3. Program Quality Board 

While the PRB and PDB focus on the content of the courses and make sure they are aligned to the expecta-‐ 

tions and needs of the CIO community, the Program Quality Board assesses the overall quality of the 

course delivery by the business schools, based upon participant feedback. 

As such, the PQB augments the business schools’ accreditation. Most educational authorities have a sys-‐ 

tem in which schools are audited once every five years. If in doubt about specific items, the accreditation 

term can be shortened to three or even one year. The EuroCIO auditor does not duplicate or intervene 

with audits by AMBA. In the education sector it is quite common to organise audits by peer reviews: rep-‐


resentatives from randomly selected schools form a team (three senior academic staff) to visit another 

school, using methods, forms, and norms provided by the authority. 

The PQB has authority, rules and regulations, and the power of penalty. Schools that loose their accredita-‐ 

tion or do not meet the quality standards defined by the PQB can no longer participate in the EuroCIO 

educational ecosystem. Another school can/will take their place. 

4.4. Program Management Committee 

The Program Management Committees (“PMC”), one for each course of the EuroCIO Educational Pro-‐ 

gramme, manages the issues around the establishment of the courses. The PMCs consist of representa-‐ 

tives from CIO community (EuroCIO and/or national bodies) and the business schools and deal with the 

day-‐to-‐day issues of the build-‐up phase as well as the co-‐ordination of the marketing activities. Once a 

course is established, the PRB/PDB and PQB mechanisms govern the on-‐going operations of the courses. 

Contact details: 

Peter HAGEDOORN Martin FRICK 

Secretary-‐General Director Education Programme and HR Workgroup 

European CIO Association European CIO Association 

phagedoorn@eurocio.org mfrick@eurocio.org 

mobile: +31653133120 mobile: +41797701952 

www.eurocio.org

Eurocio Executive Education Programme

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