Chief technical officer

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A chief technical officer or chief technology officer (abbreviated as CTO) is an executive position whose holder is focused on scientific and technical issues within a company. Often, the CTO will oversee technical staff at a company, particularly those building products or creating services that embody industry-specific technologies. In some cases the CTO will also oversee the work of the research and development organizations. There is currently no commonly shared definition of the CTO position or that person's responsibilities. Young start-ups typically have a set of technically hands-on tasks for the CTO, while an international conglomerate may need the CTO to deal with the representatives of foreign governments and industry organizations.

Though the position is believed to have emerged in the 1980s from that of Director of R&D, it came into significant use during the dot-com of the 1990s. This era also spawned one more definition for the position. Within IT companies it is common for the CTO to be part of the IT organization and to report to the CIO. In such a situation, the CTO often handles the most technical details of the IT products and their implementation. Often, the CTO is seen as a "Junior CIO" who may be promoted into that position. Because of the extreme success of IT in recent years, there are a large number of organizations, and industry publications, that view the CTO position in this very IT-specific way. However, this definition is far too narrow to be applied to all of the companies that use the title.

When asked what a CTO is, Nathan Myhrvold, the former CTO of Microsoft and head of its massive research organization, replied, "Hell if I know. You know, when Bill [Gates] and I were discussing my taking this job, at one point he said, Okay, what are the great examples of successful CTO's [sic]. After about five minutes we decided that, well, there must be some, but we didn't have on the tip of our tongues exactly who was a great CTO, because many of the people who actually were great CTO's [sic] didn't have that title, and at least some of the people who have that title arguably aren't great at it. My job at Microsoft is to worry about technology in the future. If you want to have a great future you have to start thinking about it in the present, because when the future's here you won't have the time."

Responsibilities

In practice, the CTO can have many more responsibilities than managing a portfolio of R&D or production projects. This person provides a technical voice in the strategic planning for a company. CTO's like Greg Popodopoulos at Sun Microsystems and Padmasree Warrior at Motorola work closely with the CEO to help determine what types of products or services the company should focus on. As an example, during a long airplane ride, Ed Zander, Motorola CEO, and Padmasree Warrior, Motorola CTO, collaborated to identify the central technical goal for the company. The result was the tag line "seamless mobility". Warrior explained that fast digital networks would soon be ubiquitous and the cellphone was the perfect device to take advantage of these. With a cellphone a customer could access voice, data, and music anywhere, anytime – hence seamless mobility. Zander presented this message to an industry group at their destination and it became a core mission for the entire company.

A list of responsibilities that have been identified by CTOs are:

Advise. Provide advice on company products, services, strategy, and structure. Similar to any other corporate executive, but with a uniquely technical competence.
Value. Aid in the valuation of internal businesses or of potential acquisitions. Provide analysis and opinion on the value of product portfolios, patents, facilities, and skilled staff.
Vision. Build a vision for what technology will make possible, how it will impact a company's business area, and how to squeeze the most value from these changes.
Communicate. Communicate the vision of the company to its own technical staff, to industry groups, and to the technical trade press. Engage these groups with terms from their own domain and with the personal credentials to be respected.
Manage. Lead and manage the R&D labs or operations that involve significant technologies to the company. Build internal expertise in new areas and create young new leaders to replace the current CTO and other senior members.
Innovate. Participate in research and product creation directly. Be a significant part of innovative products, such as Steve Wozniak with the first Apple computer.