Both the role of chief information officer (CIO) and chief technology officer (CTO) are rooted in technology, but their responsibilities and functions couldn’t be more different. While the two remits can sometimes blur, perhaps the most obvious difference is in their focus on either internal or external drivers of change.
Most CIOs are tasked with dealing with technology that affects employees on a day-to-day basis, ensuring that business functions are running smoothly. On the other hand, the CTO focuses on the technology that will benefit customers and drive business growth in the long-term.
With the CTO playing an increasingly important role in the digital transformation of businesses, it can be argued that a company can’t really innovate and drive business growth unless they empower employees with the right technologies and IT systems to do their job. Therefore it’s vital that the CTO works together with the CIO.
Unfortunately, this isn’t happening. Just 45% of CTOs indicated they frequently interact with their CIO counterparts, with 41% of CIOs reporting the same, according to a recent survey by IBM of 2,500 CTOs and 2,500 CIOs.
The same report found that 79% of CTOs are tasked with managing their company’s data strategy, while 70% are expected to oversee data governance and stewardships. Yet data privacy is one of a number of responsibilities that is expected to be shared between the CTO and CIO function. Others include cyber security and software development lifecycle.
The overlap in responsibilities can often lead to conflicts, redundancy, and inefficiencies, so it’s essential that two functions work together.
Building trust and transparency
It may sound obvious, but solid communication is the foundation of any good working collaboration, and the CTO-CIO relationship is no exception.
“In the technology space, the pace of innovation is happening so quickly that it represents a great opportunity to reinforce or re-evaluate the collaborative relationship,” says Robin Sutara, field CTO at analytics firm Databricks. “It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day activities, and so ensuring there is a focused effort on open dialogue is critical.”
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Setting regular meetings and joint planning sessions can be a great way for CTOs and CIOs to gain a better understanding of each other’s perspectives, strengths, and expertise, as well as provide an opportunity to share knowledge, according to Toby Alcock, CTO at IT solutions provider Logicalis.
“Frequent conversations can also help develop a culture of trust and transparency. And trust allows them to rely on each other's expertise and freely share ideas,” he says.
By being open and transparent, CTOs and CIOs can “make sure the dividing line between functions is very clear,” stresses Rich Murr, CIO at industry ERP provider Epicor. “As long as there’s no ambiguity regarding roles and responsibilities, it can be a very collaborative relationship,” he says.
Sutara adds: “Collaboration between CIOs and CTOs often goes wrong when each role has predetermined a course of action without soliciting input from the other.”
The importance of empathy and humility
While open dialogue can help CTOs and CIOs find common ground in order to meet fast-changing business and customer demands, it’s inevitable that some differences will still arise. In fact, they’re “expected, normal and healthy,” argues Eric Helmer, CTO, Rimini Street, which offers third-party software support to SaaS giants Oracle and SAP.
The focus shouldn’t be on trying to erase these differences in opinion or strategic thinking altogether, but navigating them through empathy.
However, part of the problem is that CTOs and CIOs can sometimes be fixated solely on their own outcomes, which then creates a disconnect. Both need to put aside their egos and be willing to embrace change.
“To overcome this disconnect, individuals should leverage their leadership experiences to be empathetic to the results both roles are trying to achieve, while ultimately keeping the final outcome of organisational success in mind,” says Sutara.
CTOs and CIOs also need to have humility. No one person, no matter their role, has all the answers, so there has to be a willingness to learn from each other, learn to receive feedback and, even, learn to understand how they’re being received by their teams and customers.
“My recommendation is to apply a growth mindset. Don’t assume you already know every aspect when approaching a problem,” Sutara adds.
Strong collaboration can boost the top and bottom lines
By removing points of friction and establishing common ground, companies can improve their governance over IT decisions and technology investments. This will ensure that the systems that have been put in place are serving both employees and customers as best as they possibly can.
“By avoiding pitfalls and instead following the guidance that creates a productive environment, CTOs and CIOs can form a juggernaut that enables the company to achieve both accelerated growth and improved profitability.”
Eric Helmer, CTO, Rimini Street
What’s more, if teams see that their CTOs and CIOs respect each other, are willing to learn from each other, and are aligned with a common vision, culture and goals, then they’re more likely to buy into the same vision, culture, and goals themselves. This could give the top and bottom lines a lift.
The IBM research found that strong CTO-CIO ties resulted in improved operating margins. When collaboration improved the effectiveness of data governance, management and resilience, the operating margin was boosted by an average of 36%.
For those companies with greater maturity in cloud, AI, automation, and security, collaboration raised their operating margin by an average of 26%.
When combined with high technology maturity, a strong CTO-CIO collaboration fuelled revenue gains of 6%, while those with high technology effectiveness reported a 2% rise.
