Amazon.com CTO

It seems that all CTO's are asking a similar question: How do you define what CTO's do? Who is doing it well? A recent posting by Werner Vogels, the CTO of Amazon.com, followed this same line of inquiry (see link below).

It seems that everyone wants to define the CEO, CIO, and CFO. But the CTO can just run his own show and perhaps someone will let him or her know when they have made a mess of things - or perhaps not.

Role of the CTO

Management of Technology Conference (IAMOT'07)

I am just back from the annual conference of the International Association of Management of Technology (http://www.iamot.org/) where I spoke on the changing role of the CTO in a growing corporation. I began by introducing the 5 Patterns of the CTO (see previous blog posts) and then applying those five patterns to the different growth phases of a company. The paper describes how the "Genius" CTO who was one of the founders of the company (think Steve Wozniak at Apple or Larry Page at Google) must change his pattern of behavior as the company grows. Larger companies require a CTO that is focused on the customer experience (the Advocate); managing technology vendors (the Administrator); running an R&D organization (the Director); or participating in the strategic plans for the organization (the Executive).

As always, the entire paper is posted online - see http://www.ctonet.org/documents/CTO_ChangingRole.pdf.

CTO and Technology Leader Study

Researchers at McMasters University are conducting a study of CTOs and similar technology leaders. In their own words:

"This questionnaire is part of a research program investigating technology leadership in organizations. The highest ranking manager/executive in the organization charged with the oversight of technology is usually called the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), although some organizations use other titles such as Vice-President of Technology. For convenience we use the title CTO to refer generically to all such positions. Not much research has been done on CTO’s and the important leadership roles that they play. Neither is there much reliable information about best practices for the position. This questionnaire is being used to gather information about these issues in a sample of American, European, and Japanese companies.

This questionnaire is intended to be answered by CTO’s or those in equivalent positions and includes three short sections:
In the first part are questions about your career history. These will help us build a profile of the kinds of experiences which lead people to the CTO position. The second section asks about the tasks, responsibilities and authorities associated with your position and what you perceive to be the important trends and issues in the management of technology. The third section asks questions about the important upward and outward aspects of CTO leadership."

If you would like to participate in this study, please download the questionaire at:
http://www.ctonet.org/documents/CTO%20EITIM%20survey%202007%2003%2001.doc

Pick up the phone

CTOs can become totally consumed with meeting the executives and interacting with partner companies, and meeting customers. It is easy to forget to delve into the personal, technical, and organizational side of your own business. If you do not know what is going on inside the company, you cannot know when you find something valuable on the outside.

Pick up the phone and call your business leaders, engineers, and scientists. Make an appointment for lunch or to drop by their office or lab. Going to where they are is important - (1) it shows that you are interested in their environment, (2) it proves that you know where they live, and (3) you will run into a number of other people that are interested in seeing you.