There is one thing connecting technology leaders with whom I’m speaking: the desire for clarity. Clarity on budget allocation; clarity on team size and hiring potential—and restructuring warnings; clarity on business priorities and clarity on the overarching vision for the company.
If the goal of the technology function is to realise the promise of technologies as business value, its leaders choose the north star technologies, predict its capabilities and link them to the wider business. Today, that is a tough ask.
Today, the demands of businesses can vary dramatically. Region, size, sector, risk appetite, vision—and, now, the domestic political scene—all shape to some degree how a CIO or CTO does the above. Generative AI is flooding the market with so many questions on the futures of sectors it’s now almost trite to announce being AI-first in anything. It means some executives performing two, three or even four different roles at once in order to convert technology promise into business value.
Let’s look at what those four types of CIO, CTO roles entail today:
- New business revenue generator
CEOs are increasingly asking the technology function to utilise AI for net-new business. This priority requires their CIO or CTO to sit down and consider the organisation’s market position, its customers and its unique selling point(s). It also requires investment in generative AI. Product development and experimentation, market research, customer boards and GTM team capabilities are all managed, all tracked closely with agreed-upon KPIs. This is also an elevated CPO, CDO role, and in some cases, the CAIO.
- Core business transformer
Core business functions require updating continuously. This role requires leaders to always consider how to improve certain key other corporate functions using new technologies, processes or ways of working. The market has seen technology leaders therefore flirt with areas outside of the purview of IT. Think customer experience, operations, procurement and strategy. The upside? This CIO or CTO directly eliminates silos. The downside? This full-time role can direct attention away from leading the technology function directly.
Managing talent, sourcing new talent and considering the workforce of the future is taking up more and more of an IT leaders’ time. Good; this is one of the most important responsibilities of a leader. However it isn’t always a natural career progression for the CIO, CTO. Tech-driven growth requires much more than just tech, as the saying goes. Turning talented talent into value generation is and will be a key type of technology role for the C-suite.
- Business continuity owner
A mind-blowing (numbing) number of current and projected regulations are bombarding the corporate world. Given the increasing number of cybersecurity breaches and customer backlashes, to name two such examples, however, means more policy observers understand the rationale (Washington’s newest residents aside). This type of CIO, CTO role is the proactive person adapting to regulatory requirements to ensure as streamline a business growth plan as possible. And, as ever, this in itself can be a full time role.
Here’s an exercise for my readers:
As a technology leader, how many of the above roles do you find yourself doing? If the number is greater than two, it may be worth speaking to the powers that be.
If you’re not a technology leader, do check in with them to see if and how you can help. If one cannot provide clarity, solidarity is as good as.
