Importance of the CTOCIO Profession

Importance of the CTO/CIO Profession

We must state the unique role and charter of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) as well as the CIO (Chief Information Officer). The role is changing, and at the same time becoming very important in the scope, organization and direction of the organizations leveraging information and emerging technology for competitive advantage. Computerworld recently noted that "While used by nearly 10% of major companies, the title of chief technology officer has yet to develop into a clearly defined role, according to a New York executive management search firm. And if the CTO /CIO title ever does gain full acceptance, it will likely take at least 10 years -- the same length of time it took for companies to embrace the CIO title." (59). I have to take an opposite view that without this major shift in thinking of a senior technology executive, an element of our economic market model would be seriously challenged. Strategic business decisions today have created the need for executives that are properly aligned to understand technology with profitable business opportunities, services, and processes. There is a growing need for a new type of a Technology Leader—The Leader that transforms the strategy of an organization. It may take the form of CTOs who are exclusively focusing on monitoring new technologies and assessing their potential to become new business opportunities, commercializing technologies and projects to increase value added to the organization, strategic and technical due diligence of mergers and acquisitions, evangelizing the company's future to the global community, and actively participating in government, academic, and industry econets to expand new channels and opportunities as well as to promote the company's vision. It could also be used as a vehicle to capture a significant knowledgebase of information. It demonstrates that the business visionary leaders clearly are on the same wavelength in terms of long-term technology direction and strategy. Most CTO executives agree that CTOs are long-term technology business visionaries focusing on a transformation of the company.

The path that we are describing is now moving the modern CTO into the least understood area of "distributed capitalism" with a focus on consumer and value based organizations that leverage emerging growth, strategy and transformation. We already see a tremendous change in the growth of innovation in organizations and corporations around the world, the competitive strategy of tomorrow that will combine the strategic thought leadership, emerging technology growth, and next generation strategy to deal with global issues. In fact, the strategy of organization will depend heavily on the role and responsibilities of the CTO. This convergence of knowledge and business is very important to the next movement of CTO. This book will clearly outline the set of new responsibilities for a CTO, and provide a sense of direction for CTOs focusing on Emerging Growth and Strategic Transformation. In this transitional period, many senior executives express confusion about what is and should be the exact role of the CTO with strategy, research, development, innovation and thought leadership. However, they do recognize that those areas need to intersect to combine a powerful leader. A majority of the people that we had discussions with mentioned that the role of the CTO is changing, and it will have even greater impact on the company, industry and our society. We will see how a CTO's role is going to be involved with emerging growth, strategy, globalization, commercialization, value added economy, strategic future, and competitive impact on the organization. Is this returning to a traditional CIO role? Those CTO/CIO roles that we are discussing will transform the existing companies and technologies, develop emerging business areas and technologies, and provide and improve on competitive advantage for the company. Of course, a lot of factors will depend on how actively the company is involved in the transformation and emerging growth areas. Hopefully, the role of CTO or CIO in emerging and transformational growth areas will significantly enhance business opportunities for the company and industry. Leveraging the new vision and role of a CTO with business corporate strategy will require the unique ability of a CTO to leverage internal, external, customer and management relationships to the full extent. (5)

This book will also provide guidelines on strategic thought technology leadership for the company which is set to focus on growth or transformation. In one aspect, the Emerging CTO may focus on disruptive technologies, and with another aspect, the Transformation CTO may need to focus on a holistic overview of changing the overall strategy for the company. In other respects, the role will be integrated as a modified CIO role. This author predicts that the new roles will have major impact on organization structure, human capital, value based organizations, and ecosystem of internal and external relationships. In fact, it is the author's assumption that the Emerging and Transformation CTO roles will take our country, industry, and society into a new and exciting direction to enhance our global competitiveness.