3 ms·

The CTO's job is, by description, to get on the cover of a magazine.

kls 14y ago
As a former CTO, I take some offense to the classification. Granted I am not your average CTO and at all the companies that I was a CTO for I had code that I wrote in production, I was the type of person that worked in the trenches with my guys. If an all nighter had to be pulled because of somebodies screw up, I made sure that the board knew that my guys where cleaning up the mess and the heros of the day. Not in a blame game or glory seeking way but I felt I owed it to my team to ensure the record was straight. I was also the first one to stay all night and the last one to leave in those circumstances. As such my guys where always treated with respect and held out as company assets. What I was good at was translating the business goals into actionable plans for the technical team. Helping technical people see other departments as bringing in the money helps to keep everybody's eye on the prize. The best way to align technical people is to bring them closer to the business and help them "feel" the growth. When they do, they begin to understand the importance of the business. Conversely, making business people understand that technical personnel must have pride of ownership and must be allowed to craft their product helps the business to see that stable and well crafted solutions are long term strategies that work. Just like programmers there are a lot of bad MBA'ed CTO's but for every 100 of them, their is a guy like me that truly understands both sides of the story and can bring them together and that is the true job of a CTO to align the vision of the business with a technical strategy.
- euroclydon 14y ago
  I don't think trying to get on the cover of a magazine takes anything away from what you said. They're not incompatible. If you're a C-level officer, you are part of the face of the company. I'm just pointing out to the OP, that getting on the cover of a magazine likely was part of his CTO's job, so at least that person was doing part of their job.
  - kls 14y ago
    Fair enough I miss-read the intent of your message, for that I apologize.

kls 14y ago

As a former CTO, I take some offense to the classification. Granted I am not your average CTO and at all the companies that I was a CTO for I had code that I wrote in production, I was the type of person that worked in the trenches with my guys. If an all nighter had to be pulled because of somebodies screw up, I made sure that the board knew that my guys where cleaning up the mess and the heros of the day. Not in a blame game or glory seeking way but I felt I owed it to my team to ensure the record was straight. I was also the first one to stay all night and the last one to leave in those circumstances. As such my guys where always treated with respect and held out as company assets. What I was good at was translating the business goals into actionable plans for the technical team. Helping technical people see other departments as bringing in the money helps to keep everybody's eye on the prize. The best way to align technical people is to bring them closer to the business and help them "feel" the growth. When they do, they begin to understand the importance of the business. Conversely, making business people understand that technical personnel must have pride of ownership and must be allowed to craft their product helps the business to see that stable and well crafted solutions are long term strategies that work. Just like programmers there are a lot of bad MBA'ed CTO's but for every 100 of them, their is a guy like me that truly understands both sides of the story and can bring them together and that is the true job of a CTO to align the vision of the business with a technical strategy.

euroclydon 14y ago
I don't think trying to get on the cover of a magazine takes anything away from what you said. They're not incompatible. If you're a C-level officer, you are part of the face of the company. I'm just pointing out to the OP, that getting on the cover of a magazine likely was part of his CTO's job, so at least that person was doing part of their job.
- kls 14y ago
  Fair enough I miss-read the intent of your message, for that I apologize.