CTO v CIO: Which path should you take?

Computing looks at the options available on the IT management career path

Ambitious IT professionals often have one eye on future roles, with C-level positions representing the pinnacle of what many hope to achieve in business. But how will they know which role best suits them?

The IT leaders we speak to at Computing generally hold the role of chief information officer (CIO) or chief technology officer (CTO), and they are from public and private sectors and from end users and technology providers.

However, with no well-trodden route known for attaining these roles, how should the aspiring C-level executive know how to get there?

The roles of CIO and CTO both involve defining, delivering and implementing an IT strategy, and often include a specific set of objectives, such as growing an IT department, creating efficiencies, making it leaner or even building it from scratch.

But how do they differ? Stuart Day, business manager for IT at Hays Recruitment, said: “Generally a CIO is your lead technologist. They need to have really strong IT and project management backgrounds as well as a lot of commercial acumen.”

He went on to say that the CIO role slants towards the application of software, while the application of hardware and architecture is usually dealt with by the CTO.

However, both roles involve stepping up to management and that means delegating the technical work to subordinates.

“The first question should be: Is this role really for you?” said Ian Finlay, CTO at managed services provider Claranet. “Some people aren’t ready – or don’t want – to let go of working with the technology, but you have to. It’s inevitable.”

So instead of delving deeper into the technical side of things, a C-level role involves accruing commercial experience. Potential CIOs and CTOs need to gain experience of transforming IT departments, change management, and being involved in directing the business.

“When you reach C-level, you start to have a lot of influence on the executive panel and vote on what the company does next and what direction to take,” said Day.
“So it is quite important to take the opportunities now, when possible, to run projects or programmes and to be heavily involved in transformation or change.”

Public vs private

Potential CIOs and CTOs may also be torn between whether to work in the private or public sector. Most private sector C-level execs who speak to Computing glean their experience from the private sector, but there is no reason why they would not get similar skills from the private sector.

“What people need to realise about working in the public sector is that it is as challenging as working for a private company. For example, Manchester City Council is one of the largest councils in the UK and probably the largest employer in the north west,” said Day.

“The number of people on whom IT will have an effect is likely to be more than many of the multinational companies in that area. If [a technology manager or CIO] can get that across in their CV, and show they have been responsible for defining an IS and IT strategy for an organisation with more than 50,000 employees, they will be able to compete with private sector peers.”

He added that some may even find it easier working in the private rather than the public sector, because there is less red tape and processes are a lot quicker.

Tech v end user

Another decision ambitious IT professionals need to make is whether they want to progress within an end user firm or that of a technology provider.

Ondrej Vlcek, CTO at security firm Avast, recently told Computing that the role of technology chief is much more valued in a technology firm.

“The technical people here are the heart of the company. It is unlike a typical non-technology company where the CTO is a much smaller part of the organisation. This also means a bigger proportion of the overall budget is allocated to IT than in other sectors,” he said.

However, Claranet’s Finlay claims that this may have been the case a few years ago, but things have changed.

“I don’t think that is true any more. I think IT is so embedded into so many kinds of businesses it is not true to say there is that differentiator these days.

“One of the big differences is that within the technology company there is a greater understanding of the challenges faced when implementing an IT project. I have seen a greater amount of realism and less idealism – they do not think implementing new technology will mean everything will automatically be better.”