What does a CTO do?

by Lance Glasser, Guest Author

What does a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) do in a high-tech company? It is the most ill-defined of the CxO jobs. The trick is figuring out what activities can make a difference and which are merely motions.

We all have more things we don’t know about than things we do. I think there is a hierarchy of troubles, from bad to worse:

What we don’t know.
What we don’t know we don’t know.
What we know that isn’t so [To quote Josh Billings].

The last of these is the most pernicious. There are lots of things we all “know” that aren’t actually true. Indeed, I believe that most of our limitations in business are not in the physical world, but rather in our own heads.

So what is the CTO job? First it is to ensure that the company has the best technology. A high-tech company lives in a dynamically evolving space. The company and network of suppliers and allies need to have the best technology for solving the customers’ problems. The best description of this was given to me by my friend Greg Papadopolous. He said, “Think it through by analogy. The CFO is not responsible for making revenue every quarter, but if there is a big surprise, fire him. The CTO is not responsible for delivering products every quarter, but if you miss the internet or a similar technical inflection point, fire him.”

Indeed, I have often thought that asking what you should get fired for in a job is a great way to clarify your thinking about what is really important. Part of making sure one has the best technology involves reviewing programs and challenging teams. The greatest leverage is when the project is in its earliest phases, when we are deciding on architectures in the context of market requirements and when technology choices are being made. This is where you should see the CTO. Once there is a large marching army of engineers heading off in some direction, it is pretty difficult and expensive to make changes. Much better to get things sorted out early. Get ‘em while they’re young.

A second job of the office of the CTO is to create options for the Corporation. These can be options for existing businesses or options for new businesses. Let’s take two examples from Apple Computer. Several years ago someone at Apple created the option for OS-X to run on the x86 architecture (supplied by Intel and AMD). If the PowerPC teams had done their job completely, Apple would never have needed to switch. They didn’t, and Steve Jobs had an important option that he was able to exercise. This is an example of creating an option for an existing business. Apple also created the iPod, an option for a new business. Most companies need to create both types of options.

More and more I believe that the CTO office needs to not only create options, but incubate (in partnership with Business Development and others) businesses that exploit technical breakthroughs. When I talk with other CTO’s around the country, this is the thinking that is becoming more and more common. New businesses are fragile. The CTO ends up being one of the chief stewards of innovation. To further this vector, many companies have business development report to the CTO.

Third, the CTO needs to attend to the health and well-being of the technical community.
The CTO is also a public face of technology for the company. For a high-tech company, part of the brand is its technical prowess and insight. The CTO needs to represent this in numerous forums and conferences.

The last job of the CTO that I want to mention is strategic thinking. I passionately believe that this is a year-round activity. For companies that compete first and foremost by technical excellence, clearly the CTO needs to have a voice in the company strategy.

Finally, I am sometimes asked how one can tell if a CTO has power in the organization? That’s easy. If when a technical question arises in the course of a business discussion the CEO swivels her chair around to look at the CTO for advice, that CTO has power. If not, not.

Link to the full essay.