Modern CTOs Thrive on Big-Picture Thinking
Chief technology officers today must unify businesses in new and important ways.
Modern enterprises going through a digital transformation are making significant technology investments to remain competitive. Technology executives with titles like CIO, CISO, COO, and others are no longer concerned solely with keeping traditional IT departments operating smoothly — they are fully engaged with developing the infrastructure and systems needed to engage and sell to the customers, partners, and vendors in their supply chain.
Technical debt, mass migration of systems to the cloud and entirely new system principles, such as DevOps and zero-trust architecture, mean that the rate of change in the level of complexity has never been higher. With that added complexity comes risk to both uptime and cybersecurity, but many enterprises lack someone whose role it is to take these issues into account and factor them into the business’s plans for the future.
Company leadership roles tend to be fairly well-defined. CIOs are under pressure to deliver IT rollouts on time and on budget. COOs are keeping the lights on for many operational tasks, and CISOs spend countless hours worrying about governance and the next data breach. None of this has changed during the current push towards work from home due to COVID-19, and those occupying these executive positions rarely have extra cycles to spend thinking about how to best take advantage of the latest technology trends to get a competitive edge against competition — let alone how to manage the associated extra complexity.
Effective strategic thinking is best achieved when accompanied by a skillset that combines both technical and business acumen. Ideally, this visionary function is fulfilled by a role that is directly responsible for influencing various stakeholders in the enterprise. A multi-disciplinary leader capable of “pulling it all together” is essential — like a driver who also maps out the route, tackles mechanical issues, and ensures maximum fuel efficiency. Today’s enterprises need someone with clear visibility into every aspect of the business.
Enter the modern CTO. The mandates for CTO skillsets vary. Some organizations have attempted to create a taxonomy of CTO roles, but this Werner Vogels article about the four types of CTOs probably captured it best. Most CTOs are expected to fill two out of the four roles. The conclusion is that CTOs are either directly responsible for one or more leadership roles in engineering, operations, initial invention or overall vision and strategy. CTOs, by tradition and by definition, are technology experts chartered with the task of innovation, but most also have the good fortune to face the customer and know what is wanted from a business problem-solving standpoint. That is, outside of the engineering and operational responsibilities, these CTOs can also advocate for the customer.
Unifying disciplines to deliver on the big picture
Back in the 1970s, Frederick Brooks wrote about the idea of ‘conceptual integrity’ in his book that was once referred to as “The Bible of software engineering.” The problem he described was similar, in that he was dealing with large-scale technological change and complexity.
