What Does The CEO Want From The Technology Department?
Technology nowadays is one of the most critical factors in the success of any company, regardless of what company it is. No matter the size of your enterprise, technology has both tangible and intangible benefits that will help you make money and produce the results your customers demand. Technological infrastructure affects the culture, efficiency and relationships of a business. It also affects the security of confidential information and trade advantages.
The CEO’s Perspective
So what does the CEO want from the technology department? As a CEO, the company's ultimate goal or bottom line is to keep it growing. There are two main reasons why this is necessary:
1. Keep our employees employed and receive benefits.
To succeed in any industry, companies must constantly innovate and evolve to stay on the cutting edge — and that entails helping their employees continuously develop professionally and gain benefits.
2. To supply value to the shareholders.
Shareholder value is the value delivered to the equity owners of a corporation due to management's ability to increase sales, earnings, and free cash flow, which leads to an increase in dividends and capital gains for the shareholders.
There are many CEOs who focus on shareholder value alone and not giving proper attention to their employees makes an unhealthy culture. The key is to focus on your employees first then your shareholders. Because when you make your employees happy, your clients and shareholders will be happy, and if you don’t make your employees happy then your clients and shareholders will not be happy as well.
Keeping The Lights Running
Building a strong tech team can be one of the most crucial aspects of a business’s success. Perhaps more than any other department, tech teams need to be cohesive, with excellent communication skills, the ability to work together to effectively build solutions, and a sense of trust between members.
Many tech teams only focus on running the business and when they reach that point, that’s it. The problem with that is that the technology department becomes a cost center. This happens to the majority of businesses, even the CEO looks at the technology team as a cost and not as a profit center. And if you are in this situation you will never get budget increases and you will be struggling to keep the budget that you have as a CIO CTO.
Growing Your Business With Technology
There is no business nowadays that can survive without technology, even agriculture people uses technology to grow. Growth is one of the key goals for every business leader, and no matter if you’re the head of a small local company or one of the leaders of a global brand, it’s probably safe to say that your strategies revolve around growing your business. There are many directions in which you can take your company’s growth, but before you do, you first have to build a strong growth strategy, one that will not only facilitate success but also help you scale your operation and keep employees productive during times of growth as well. At the center of this strategy should be Technology.
Summary
The goal of every CEO is to make the company grow and as a CIO, or CTO your role is to help the CEO grow that company. This can only be achieved through technology innovations, proper focus on employees then the shareholders and clients, and making the tech team a profit center. There is no middle ground in business it is either you are growing and shrinking, and without technology, your business may not survive.
Written by Dhan Ababa
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