Focus on Strategy, Not Technology

The CTO's focus should be at least as much on the fit of the technology organization and strategy to the business as it is on the fit of the technology itself. There are lots of good technologies out there, and there are many technical solutions that will work equally well to solve any given business problem. It is unusual to find a company where the technology they have cannot meet the needs of the business, from a pure platform perspective. What is more important is understanding the alignment of the technology organization with the goals of the business and how well they are using the technology they have. You will run into more issues from a lack of alignment of IS or IT objectives with the real strategies and objectives of the business, and a lack of partnership between technology and business, than you will from people implementing technology that is just not going to work.

In assessing an IT shop, it is easy to figure out what technologies are being used and where they are being used. It takes more time to get a sense of whether the organization is aligned well. It also takes longer to understand whether the applications in place have been developed with a view toward supporting the future needs of the business. You must look at how the applications were developed, how they were architected, and how they are set up to allow for and support change in the business, as opposed to dealing with a particular need at a point in time.