What they have in common:
•In both jobs, a key role is helping technologists understand what the business needs and helping the business understand what the technology can do for them.
•Both roles require a strong technologist with a strong grasp of business (kind of a corollary to the last point, but slightly different).
•Both should be strategic thinkers.
•Both should be excellent leaders.
Now for their differences:
•I see a CTO as primarily focused on the top line while the CIO is primarily focused on the bottom line. There’s some cross over, but I think this is a valid distinction.
•A CTO is primarily concerned with external products and customers while a CIO is primarily concerned with running the business (internal products and customers).
•In an ideal world, the CTO runs the product development organization while the CIO runs the IT organization.
•If you have to choose, being a strong technologist is more important for the CTO, while being a good manager is more important for the CIO.
•A CIO has to be operational and understand how to build repeatable processes, reliable systems, and the organization to run them. A CTO doesn’t necessarily have to have these skill if backed up by a strong operational person in the role of CIO.
•In both jobs, a key role is helping technologists understand what the business needs and helping the business understand what the technology can do for them.
•Both roles require a strong technologist with a strong grasp of business (kind of a corollary to the last point, but slightly different).
•Both should be strategic thinkers.
•Both should be excellent leaders.
Now for their differences:
•I see a CTO as primarily focused on the top line while the CIO is primarily focused on the bottom line. There’s some cross over, but I think this is a valid distinction.
•A CTO is primarily concerned with external products and customers while a CIO is primarily concerned with running the business (internal products and customers).
•In an ideal world, the CTO runs the product development organization while the CIO runs the IT organization.
•If you have to choose, being a strong technologist is more important for the CTO, while being a good manager is more important for the CIO.
•A CIO has to be operational and understand how to build repeatable processes, reliable systems, and the organization to run them. A CTO doesn’t necessarily have to have these skill if backed up by a strong operational person in the role of CIO.
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