Chief technology officer. 8 qualities you need to be a great CTO
A CTO (Chief Technology Officer) or Chief Technical Officer is one of the key figures within a modern company, especially when it comes to digital transformation.
But what exactly does a Chief Technology Officer do? The answer is not entirely defined, and will depend on the size of the company. The concept of CTO emerged in the 80s and was established during the boom the dot-com companies in the 90s. In short, we must say that a CTO is the person in charge of providing technology in order to help improve the company. Because of this, the Chief Technology Officer holds a position halfway between the most technical profiles and those focused on the business.
In certain large companies, this profile will coexist with the figure of the CIO, and will frequently communicate with each other. In certain small companies, this same person will carry out the functions of the CTO and the CIO, and will use one of these names to define their job.
However, although their functions are not always the same and sometimes a CTO might be mistaken for the figure of the CIO, we can mention some qualities needed in order to be a good Chief Technology Officer, these skills are legit and come from professionals.
This person must be a technology expert
It is obvious: a Chief Technology Officer must be an expert in existing technologies and must know how to analyse how these should be implemented and how these might help the company. This way, this person must know how to select the use of technologies, which will imply a good risk/benefit ratio for the company, which means discarding excessively experimental technologies that might be an excessive risk, and also means forgetting about obsolete technologies.
This person must take into account the economic factor
The job of the chief technology officer is not about converting the technological part of the company into an experimentation group, but it’s about ensuring that the adoption of technology will mean an economic benefit for the company. Because of this, a CTO must take this into account and also be aware of the economy of the company and have a deep understanding of the business. In addition to this, this person will often be responsible for contracting technological products or services, so this person will need to know market prices properly in order to avoid overpaying suppliers.
This person must be up to date and be curious about new things
It is something that should be implicit in his extensive knowledge of technology. Because of the fast nature of this job, the Chief technology officer should have qualities such as curiosity and the be willing to learn, which will allow him to be up to date on new technologies that may arise. Lucky for us, nowadays there are several websites (some of them even specifically aimed at the figure of the CTO), which will help you be up to date when it comes to technology.
This person must be a good strategist
The figure of the Chief technology officer not only looks at the present, but also must be aware of the needs of the company in the future in the short, medium and long term. In order to carry out this task, this person must take into account the state of the technological development of the company and the possibilities of the implementation of new technologies, and this person should also bear in mind key factors such as the financial possibilities available in the business. In order to carry out this job, this person must be always in touch with other management positions in the company, such as the CEO, the CFO or the CIO, and serve as an intermediary between their needs and possibilities and the work of the technicians.
This person should know all about the client
In our times of digital transformation, the customer plays a central role for the company. Therefore, the CTO must also know their needs and desires, and also should know how to put themselves in the client’s shoes in order to know how to satisfy these. In this sense, interacting with certain frequency with the clients will be quite helpful.
This person must be a good communicator and have social skills
Just like any other management position, the ability to be understood and to communicate with different people will be essential. Therefore, he must be able to understand technological issues in order to train those people who lack technical training, but also he has to be able to let his team know about those things related to customer needs or performance economic.
This person must be a good leader and have the ability to team up
It is another quality that every good manager should have. The chief technology officer should be able to set deadlines and objectives and effectively coordinate the different members of his team. In order to do this, qualities such as leadership skills, empathy, a talkative personality or knowing how to motivate your team will be helpful in your work. In addition to this, depending on the size of the business, this person will often take part in the selection of the company’s technical staff.
This person should be an expert in project management
The activity of the CTO will be very attached to the realization of specific projects. Therefore, having specific knowledge about how a project is managed will be very helpful.
And now that we have gone through 8 qualities of a good chief technology officer, we would like to show you our beloved tool called eHorus.
EHorus is a remote management system for computers (remote desktop software) that will help you if you are a CTO or if you work with a chief technology officer.
Do you want to find out what eHorus can do for you? You can do that by entering the following address: https://ehorus.com
Or you can also send us any question you might have about eHorus. You can do that in the contact form that can be found at the following address: https://ehorus.com/contact-us-remote-management-software/
Take a look at eHorus and ask us any question you might have. The eHorus team will be happy to help you!
