At Farr Systems, he and his staff of 15 offer consulting, coaching and assessment services and provide interim CIOs. "As a CIO, you see your business and your IT organization in very great detail," he explains, but you don't always have access to a wider perspective. "As a consultant, I see how CIOs have similar problems and opportunities, and I get to see some of the best and some of the worst approaches to new technologies and to new management practices."

The broader view, he says, allows him to bring many new ideas to his clients.

Wake-up Call?

These IT leaders' career paths are typical of executives who decide that something's missing from their working lives as time goes by, says Frank Scavo, president of Computer Economics, an IT research firm in Irvine, Calif.

But they can leave a void in the industries they forsake when they seek fulfillment elsewhere, Scavo says. "If some of the best CIOs are leaving to do something else, that's not a good thing" for companies that need innovative, forward-looking IT pros.