First and foremost, a CTO must care about and understand the business, and be able to shape business strategy through the lens of technology. He is an executive first, a technologist second. If the CTO doesn’t have a seat at the executive table and doesn’t understand the business challenges the company faces, there’s no way he can guide the technology to solve those challenges. The CTO may identify areas where technology can be used to create new or bigger lines of business for the company that align with the overall company strategies.
