CIO vs. CTO: Differentiating two important executive positions.

• Author: Bagley, Judd
• Position: Technology

Subsets of industry have classified themselves as "technology companies" since the postwar emergence of commercializable computation. As competition caused R&D budgets to balloon, the need arose for a C-level position dedicated to managing innovation: the chief technology officer (CTO). This role experienced a hefty boost with the ascent of Silicon Valley and again with the arrival of the internet.

The outcome of much of that innovation was products that offered new dimensions of both opportunity and complexity to sectors that had previously not counted technology among their primary concerns. Thus, even so-called old economy businesses came to depend on new economy products to compete.

This new reality, in turn, sparked the need for another C-level position: chief information officer (CIO).

"There are no longer non-technical businesses," says BJ Vanderlinden, CIO of Larry H. Miller Sports and Entertainment. "Every company has to be a technology company. So, you might be a manufacturing company--but in reality you're a technology company that has manufacturing capabilities. And the role of CIO is to understand how technology can accelerate the strategy and objectives of an organization and how it can impact a business, because for the rest of the business folks, it's impossible to have an expectation that they get that."

Thus, the CTO is an outward-facing position with an eye toward developing technologies to meet market needs outside the enterprise, while the CIO is an inward-facing position charged with managing information technologies that meet business needs within the enterprise.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

This duality places hefty demands on the position, as a successful CIO must keep a foot planted firmly in each of two frequently opposing worlds.

"I have hundreds of individuals who work for me and sometimes they're technical and sometimes not, and I need to know how to interface with both," says USANA CIO Walter Noot. "I think I have an ability to do that. I can explain very hard things we're doing in a simple way, and sometimes I have to speak in front of 20,000 people."

In this sense, Noot posits, arriving at the position with more traditional business than technical training provides the CIO with a substantial advantage.

Vanderlinden agrees, saying, "One of the benefits that I have, having not been in any one of those typical roles of developer or network engineer, is I understand how technology can impact the business but I...