I completley agree, especially on "Ones usefulness to an organisation is not just based on knowledge, but on ability, through long practice, in working out how to solve problems, no matter what they are."

In some organisations, ones knowledges of the company, work processses and its structure obtained during years of IT work is often disregarded.

Especially senior IT managers/ CIO with several years under their belt in the same company might know more about the internals of the company as the GM; we are the ones in the field that have to find solutions to operational insufficiencies, its not not only the companies 'problems' we have to identify, but also translate them into a IT based solutions.