CTO and Evangelist

The CTO is constantly involved with addressing the critical issues of technology. Generating enough public attention and awareness is a very important element of a CTO. The CTO is also a valuable tool in addressing the increasingly well-informed media about the products, services, and the future plans of the company. CTOs confidently speak to technologists and can play a role in convincing public relations that the company's decisions have merit and will add significant value for the company's stakeholders. (5)

Public relations are an important marketing element, and demonstrate the success of the company products and capabilities. Although producing information and images for public consumption is primarily the responsibility of the marketing organization, the CTO is heavily involved in evangelizing at a strategic level a market position for the company.

In other organizations, the CTO actually dives deeper to teach and mentor senior management about the importance of technology in their industry. The goal is to ingrain technology as a part of integral and significant consideration in all executive decision-making. (43) (28)

The CTO adds critical expertise because the CTO is capable of accurately translating some product and technology details into terms that can be used in marketing and business development. The CTO is heavily involved with the press and media. It is also very important for a corporation to have knowledgeable experts to be interviewed and quoted. Trade publications rely upon statements by insiders and experts who can speak authoritatively and with credibility on a subject. CTOs are critical experts for their perspective companies. These experts are like politicians-they're made, nurtured, and coached. (40) An example of this, stated in an Aspatore book, is of Ron Moritz, CTO of Symantec, who was an expert in Internet security but the media was not aware of his expertise. Therefore, Symantec's strategy was to turn Morinz into a media recognized and consulted expert. (2)