CTO- Emerging Business Technology Role

We have discussed a number of areas that are critical to the CTO with a focus on emerging business and technology opportunities.

Mario Cardullo indicates the role of the CTO in the emerging technologies is invaluable. The CTO will act as master gatekeeper for external technology and will select and conduct long-term research. The CTO acts as principal technology adviser. The CTO determines the balance of short-term and long-term technology programs. The CTO is responsible for assessing programmatic needs and for protecting the integrity of R&D against the demands of technical services. The CTO develops technology metrics, performs technological benchmarking studies and designs and guides technology audits and reports on the technological fitness of enterprise. (16)

The CTO should combine a broad knowledge of the potential value in emerging technologies, and a very good understanding of how these technologies can affect the company's business and business processes. This person also needs strong communication and interpersonal skills to influence senior executives. The emerging CTO's function is to help the company evaluate different paths to achieving business goals, in addition to being an evangelist for the organization. The value added role is to improve the awareness of innovation and disruptive technologies. (5)

As we have seen, the CTO is heavily involved with technology decision-making in the organization. We have also observed that the CTO is a technology expert in the organization. Clearly, the CTO needs to spend a significant portion of their time monitoring trends and evaluating new technology. The CTO should be identifying and recommending appropriate technology solutions that enables the company to be more competitive, better serve customers and improve the overall profitability of the organization. The CTO is constantly on the lookout for technology trends among your competitors, customers and similar organizations in other industries. Continuous competitive and comparative analysis is an important step in enabling an organization to leverage the customers' technology decisions to the best advantage. The CTO needs to be a strategic thought leader supported by the company and industry. This leader will manage a technology organization and technology initiatives in the company. The CTO will set priorities and provide full project life-cycle management including the quality assurance and implementation of the internal development projects. The CTO will be responsible for partnerships. Partnerships could take advantage of new and emerging technologies without the challenges of developing and maintaining those systems internally. The CTO should recognize the opportunities and be willing to build and manage external relationships and alliances. The Chief Technology Officer becomes the public relations voice of technology for your company. Converging strategy, technology and leadership expertise into play, the CTO will help identify the major opportunities and win and avoid the obstacles and bottlenecks that are inherent in chasing the technological trends of the "new" digital economy. (7)

Furthermore, the CTO is responsible for determining how technology can be used to implement the business strategy. The "technology visionary" aspect of the emerging CTO is the most important aspect of the role. However, the CTO must have an excellent combination of both business and technical skills in order to successfully design the functional and technical aspects of the business strategy and then build the IT organization to execute its components. The CTO must always be on the lookout when technology innovation outstrips the organization's capacity to manage rapid change. One of the great challenges of this CTO is to balance work that is centered in product research and innovation while accommodating solid business requirements necessary for building a successful company. CTOs must focus on emerging areas, and must also connect a complex set of relationships among other assets (human, social, knowledge, and financial). (5)

As a CTO focusing on emerging areas, it is very important to develop the strategic technology plan for the organization by identifying, tracking, and experimenting with new and potentially disruptive technologies. The goal is to project and assess technologies' impact on the corporation and its customers.

As far as the organization, the emerging CTO would have a relatively small group of people with responsibilities that may include technology research & development, technology transfer and change management, intellectual property, knowledge management and/or best practice management, and advanced specialized technology centers. In addition, the CTO is usually responsible for ensuring that best practices for exploiting key technologies are shared across the organization's front line with its customers. The CTO may have a strong reputation with the senior executive leadership team, ecosystem partnerships, clients, and external public perception. The CTO's success comes from a position of influence as a key advisor to the executive management. It is difficult to measure the sphere of influence of this type of CTO. A CTO will serve as a strategic advisor on major decisions or changes in direction for the company. (5)