A number of CIOs turn a blind eye to decision- making and the corporate governance of their organization, instead preferring the more risky approach of being inwardly focused.

"To be internally focused (on creating processes) is the wrong way of going about IT governance," says Kumar Parakala, global chief operating officer at the information risk management division at KPMG, and also speaker at Wednesday"s SEARCC 05 conference in Sydney.

Parakala, who has 16 years experience working in IT management positions and alongside C-class executives, is presenting a speech titled, Cultural change first, IT governance next, on Wednesday afternoon.

Parakala will present his speech ahead of Howard Nicholson, the vice president of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Nicholson, also speaking at SEARCC 05 will also address the topic of governance, with his presentation looking at how IT can enable change and maximize the potential of an organization.

IT governance is in the spotlight this year. Australia"s AS 8015 Corporate Governance of Information and Communication Technology standard was ratified by standards company SAI Global in March. It is intended to provide guiding principles to the senior executive in relation to IT governance.

SAI also devised a successful half-day seminar, "ICT Governance", to assist C-class professionals -- company directors, CEOs, CIOs, senior project managers, information security personnel and IT managers to understand the new standard .

AS 8015 is an addition to existing international frameworks and methodologies such as COBIT, ITIL and Prince2, all of which provide input into the creation of effective IT governance.

Parakala defines corporate governance as the framework which is established to ensure effective transparency and accountability of senior management"s decisions to its stakeholders. IT governance, on the other hand, is the framework which allows the senior executives of an organization to get the best IT value from their investment decisions.

For Parakala, the key point of his message for CIOs is to understand the corporate governance framework of their organization -- whether it be a formal or informal one, and then establish IT governance to align with that.

"You (CIOs) need to understand how your culture works and if you don"t, you will fail."

IDG is the official organizer and media sponsor of the SEARCC 05 conference.