Chapter 13: Creating and Enriching Business Value


Overview

Richard Schroth

The CTO is one of the key technology leadership positions in many organizations. This position can be defined in many different ways but is most commonly associated with the efforts to advance the technology of a company and to communicate the difficult task of strategic business and technology positioning. The CTO is generally seen as the key individual who helps establish or influence the next generation of technological products and services of the organization.

The title of CTO is being established in more and more organizations as the newest of the senior leadership positions, and generally the CTO serves as a direct report to the CEO. In that regard, I view the CTO as an individual who has the responsibility to help shape and influence both the strategy and processes of the organization, to enrich external client relationships and business value through the smart deployment of technology to solve business problems, and to understand the basic elements of the technology deployed by the organization, both globally and locally.

The CTO must focus on and execute three primary areas of the responsibility. First is understanding and influencing the business strategy and value system of the corporation. Second is continually trying to understand and put into conversational perspective the evolution of the technology as a whole. From this position, the CTO should be able to provide guidance to the company with that knowledge. The third primary responsibility is watching the business processes of the company, both internally and externally, and forming a directional strategy on how to introduce those technologies that will have the most profound effect on aiding in developing new business value and enhancing the business delivery process.

There can be an additional role for the CTO, depending upon the organization and the products or services it provides to the market. Directing the research labs or research activities of an organization is often a significant effort led by the CTO. This is especially true in technology product-driven companies where proprietary technology innovation is a cornerstone for the evolution of products to the marketplace.

Typically in this role, the CTO spends more attention on the science of the technology and becomes an influencing figure in the work of the laboratories and early product development cycles of the company.




The CTO Handbook. The Indispensable Technology Leadership Resource for Chief Technology Officers
The CTO Handbook/Job Manual: A Wealth of Reference Material and Thought Leadership on What Every Manager Needs to Know to Lead Their Technology Team
ISBN: 1587623676
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 213

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net