The Varying Role of the CTO

The concept of a CTO varies widely from company to company. The title of CTO has gone through quite an evolution and continues to evolve. Some of the traditional roles of the CTO still exist in many companies today. Thought of as the deep technology guru of the company, CTOs were sometimes scientists, engineers, or computer science specialists with skills primarily focused on product development, R&D, and possibly a few specialized application areas requiring highly notable skill sets.

Evolution has reshaped this early description and is converting the role to require an understanding of not only the technological implications, but also the process implications brought on by the use of the technology. This evolved position is one of the hardest to fill in organizations today, and the CTO perspective is one of the most sought-after - that of a combined deep understanding of business, business processes, and technology. Adding the ability to communicate to executive audiences increases the rarity substantially.

One of the key drivers of this shift in the role of the CTO is that the business process is starting to integrate more and more technological elements into it, so that it is almost impossible to differentiate the process understanding from the technological capabilities. Under these conditions, the CTO is no longer focused on the application or the technology but attempts to understand the fundamental relationships between the two and the required changes in both to move the company to the next generation of thinking. A bridge has to be developed between a division that is trying to execute a new application and the other elements that it has to go through to change its fundamental process.

Some still call this reengineering. My thoughtful and learned colleague, James Champy, one of the inventors of the re-engineering concept, now thinks of it more as X-engineering.

The CTO is also playing a more active roll in the specialized areas of mergers and acquisitions. I find that strong CTOs in many organizations are clearly involved in the acquisition and merger decisions, much more so than a CIO would be. The CTOs go in sometimes as part of the due diligence process. CTOs performing in these capacities are clearly people who have networks and knowledge that can enrich the perspective and the business proposition of the deal. If the deal structure does not appear to create the business value anticipated, they may also propose relationships and alliance structures on behalf of the company. In my mind, the CTO must have the senior business executive skills to shoulder a broader responsibility for the corporate well-being.