03/ 28/ 2002
When You're Suddenly the CTO
by Rachel Adelson
As a small business owner, you wear many hats. Increasingly, you need to get comfortable wearing the cap of Chief Technology Officer, or CTO. Here's some advice from expert CTOs.
- Make sure technology supports the business. "Your strategy should include a technology plan as well as financial, marketing and staffing plans," says Carmen Larsen, CEO of AQUAS Inc., a management consultant and technology integrator in Chevy Chase, Md. Says Neeran Saraf, CEO/CTO of Saraf Software Solutions of Falls Church, Va., "It takes discipline to create and install the best procedures." For that, she says it's "money well spent" to hire consultants who've done similar work for larger companies.
- Cultivate the best technical people. "Pay attention to [them]; make sure they're loyal and inspired," says industry vet Glenn Ricart, CTO of desktop-computing outsourcer Centerbeam Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. "The good ones are hard to retain. If you're outsourcing, map things out clearly—you'll get more respect, along with better handling."
- Contribute to the vision of where technology can take the company. Says Larsen, "Technology is one vehicle by which you can achieve your business objectives, plus it gives you indicators of how well you're doing." In her technology company, Saraf must make sure the infrastructure supports customer requirements; the CTO of a non-technical company looks more at the technology requirements of the company itself.
Clearly, the role of CTO calls for multiple skills—nothing new for the small-business owner. What is new might be awareness of one's self as a CTO. Ricart says a good CTO walks into a business asking three main questions:
- Is the technology infrastructure allied with the business objectives? "Too often, someone puts in place a beautiful technical infrastructure, but it's not aligned with the business structure," says Ricart. "That doesn't make a profit for the company."
- Is the infrastructure capable of growing? "The litmus test," Ricart says "is whether the network is poised for growth. It often reveals the condition of other areas."
- Does it take security seriously? If not, the company is at significant risk. "I've seen companies lose all their e-mail," says Parnell. "That's corporate knowledge, gone down the tubes."
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2001 issue of MyBusiness Magazine, NFIB's member magazine.
