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March 15, 2006When CTOs are Not Evangelists
Lately I’ve been looking at a trend within larger software companies. They have two roles now, the CTO and the Technology Evangelist. I’m not sure I get that.
I’ve been a CTO at my last 3 companies, and it was my job to evangelize the technology, including presentations, articles, books, and more. Strategy was easy if you were the communicator as well. Why? Because of the data points you got out there in the real world which feed directly into your understanding of your own technology strategy, and the value of that technology strategy in the marketplace.
One aspect of the job, speaking with the press, standards bodies, and end users, lead to better information, thus better product and technology strategy. Thus, I’m not sure I could just sit in some office somewhere and create the strategy without attempting to influence others around the acceptance of the technology.
However, a few companies are locking their CTO in the back room and hiring professional evangelists to communicate with the outside world. You really need a CTO that can do both roles, else you’re going to find they can do neither.
Posted by davel at 08:44 PM in
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I definitely agree that the CTO needs to be an evangelist of the group. The Vision he represents is paramount to keeping the troops motivated, informed and on-track. However, vision and communication are not necessarily related tasks.
One thing companies can do is hire tutors to bring them up to the needed level of communicator. This is especially true in technology companies where the your vision has to be a beacon outside your companies 4 walls.
So, I hope this article increases the attendence at toast masters meeting across the world!
Posted by: Jeff Adkins at April 12, 2006 11:03 AM
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