Where Have the Old CTOs Gone?

The CTO (Chief Technology Officer) is responsible for research and
development and possibly for new product plans.-SearchCIO.com

CTO-An executive title related to CIO, usually at a medium or large-sized
company. The CTO is, however, more focused on the use of technology in products
developed by the company and technology delivered to external customers. CTOs
are typically more technical than CIOs.

Technically speaking, how 'technical' is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
turning out to be? Till the recent past, the "traditional" CTO's
high level of involvement with the R&D groups typically involved liaising
with the CEO and the CFO on key research imperatives and funding needs. However,
in the services-dominated Indian scene, the job pressures and requirements of a
CTO are fast increasing. In fact, with the increase in the CTO's points of
interface within the organization, his/her role is becoming more complex. It is
a complexity which is typically being driven by the need to actively co-ordinate
between the different divisions-marketing, operations, administration, sales.
This calls for a high emphasis on soft skills, especially in the Indian IT
services companies. The need for business-focused direction to R&D is
getting broad-based, increasing the complexity of the CTO's technology
directions.

"It's always exciting to be a part of the company's progress path,
across the board. Cross-functional responsibilities for the CTO is now a given,
when you consider that services companies are growing increasingly lean and
mean," says Gerard Rego, CTO cum CIO of Bangalore-based product firm Liqwid
Krystal. "The CTO's role is clearly going beyond technology as he is now
defining a company's services roadmap, and also, parallelly, charting the
technology directions which product developments should take in keeping with the
company's services imperatives," concurs Rego's CEO and Liqwid Krystal
co-founder Anand Adkoli.

In a predominantly services-oriented technology scene, the mindset to
integrate is strong. Says Divakaran Mangalath, CTO of Wipro Technologies,
"Services has to be a planned package offering, and involves a lot of
testing and implementation skills. So, it is not really different from a
product."

Innovation: bleeding at the edge

While long-term contracts are growing in popularity on the services scene,
they also provide greater scope to the CTO for product innovation and
standardization. Not too many IPs were generated, of course, as Indian services
companies use standard testing tools like Loadrunner and Winrunner. But all
products do not innovation make, and it does not rest on IPs alone. Innovation
can also happen when the enterprise customer wants it, say CTOs like Mangalath,
who believe in service line impregnability. "We proactively invest and
create IPs along our service lines which can help us approach clients with a
strong IP portfolio. But then, this rides on our project implementation and apps
integration expertise." Wipro has filed for three patents, he says.

How much of innovation will the CTO need? Even worldwide, the need to
preserve existing markets is overwhelming-the quest for innovation from the
ground up. Microsoft's fundamentally novel innovations like the SWOT watch and
the "digital toilet" flopped miserably soon after launch over two
years ago. Over 90% of Microsoft's annual $7 bn R&D outlay still goes into
protecting its primary constituency of Windows and Office, with the rest
allocated to ground-up innovations in search of a market. "But, why
not?" argues Mangalath, "The SWOT watch may not have succeeded to
Microsoft's expectations, but you need thought leadership too. The bigger
issue is one of thought leadership in products and services."

Apps integration, for instance, is increasingly being done on a SOA from
Web-based platforms. The CTO's role in the ongoing services scene is to ensure
continuous knowledge upgradation of his team, see that new technologies build
new service lines around capabilities like these.

Companies like Wipro, HCL, Satyam and Infosys have been expanding their IT
services portfolios by offering high-value services such as IT consulting linked
with Application Development and Maintenance (ADM) and systems integration,
bringing them into direct competition with global IT consulting giants like
Accenture and IBM. "However, the growing scenario will see companies
finding it difficult to sell a product solely on product pitches", say CTOs
like Rego. Adds Mangalath, "Value does not accrue just from product
innovations, but also from business innovations. Product features alone will not
help. Thought leadership in India will make an impact only when strong services
and support lines for the product are showcased to the enterprise CTO."

And what about pureplay products? "Well, there is the danger of creating
information tools or products which could bring you into direct business
conflict or competition with a customer," Mangalath says.

Many a ball to juggle

The CTO's role is primarily of change management in services companies, as
they expound on the process of innovation in their service pitches and
proof-of-concept presentations. Scaling up implementation competencies through
alliances and partnerships has pushed the "verticalization" plans of
Wipro, Infosys and other services companies into the arms of specialization,
and, growing consultancy practices on SAP, Siebel, besides the traditional CCNAs
and MCP certifications.

"Innovation is something we maintain at every level of activity. It's
becoming more and more difficult to go by conventional definitions or notions of
innovation-not necessarily on standalone products-in an increasingly
enterprise-oriented services business," says the CTO of one services
company.

The brainiac tag is slowly and surely wearing off. As Peter Woolford, manager
of IT and engineering for Boston staffing firm Kforce, said, "CTO used to
be the glamour job. Usually, one of the company founders or principals stepped
into the role, and it meant less involvement in day-to-day management and a
focus on playing with new toys."

During the dotcom and computer boom of the 1990s, many companies used the CTO
title for their senior technical person. However, the MIS and IT community often
used the title CTO as either a synonym for the Chief Information Officer, or for
a subordinate to the CIO, more versed in the technical intricacies of the
systems being deployed. There has been no uniform application of the title, and
some confusion was caused when people across domains discussed the CTO's role.
The role of the CTO varies between companies and industries, but continues to
relate to technology. It's just that his roles are increasing, and in varying
degrees, across different organizations.

Today's technologist in the IT industry is taking more and more pride in
the creation of a service line and a product to support it. As a creator or
manipulator, this technologist will derive a degree of satisfaction from this
ability, take great pride in it, and often tie his or her personal identity to
this set of skills.

But as the share of services in the Indian economy is predicted to cross 60%
by end-2006, an ambitious technologist is learning to be comfortable with taking
a hands-on role in the creation of processes, in making decisions that shaping
them; balancing this new demand against his accustomed role of leading others
through sheer force of technical expertise and abilities to demonstrate his
skills when enterprise challenges arise.

Times are a-changing and the tsunamis of transition will not be denied. The
CTO's growing role beyond that of a technology manipulator is a 'sine' of
the times. And, what will happen when company growth exceeds the CTO's
abilities for transition? Well, he will simply have to move on to more
challenging roles. But wait, we are not there yet.

Ravi Menon in Bangalore