Blog

The Role of a CTO

Keeping one foot in today and one foot in tomorrow.

The role of a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is not something that can be summarised in a few words. The job description encompasses such a quantity of requirements and expectations, that infact a whole article is needed on the subject.

For small businesses particularly, the role of a CTO is crucial to the success of the company. Their job shoulders huge responsibility, keeping the momentum of the company continually moving forward. Being able to balance current projects while planning what is next using innovative technology trends and client interests is an essential part of the job title.

A certain amount of flexibility is required; managing a team of engineers who are fundamental to the production of products offered involves a lot of responsibility. Additionally, balancing decisions regarding company and technology strategy are hugely important and often require a lot of consideration and research.

Chris Lloyd is the founder and technology director of 27partners, with previous experience as implementation team leader for the first BBC iPlayer infrastructure project and senior consultant for Kontiki Inc. He has skills in systems engineering, fault resolution, project management and operational issues. Furthermore he is a proactive digital architect responsible for the design and implementation of large-scale video and digital transformation projects.

As part of 27partners, CTO Chris’ current focus is on the design and implementation of solutions that work with the specific needs of enterprise customers. This involves bespoke development of video services, content management systems and custom applications. He also helps to provide customer consultancy, explaining market interests and describing how particular media solutions could fit into their future plans.

Chris works to connect like-minded people together using face-to-face meetings or LinkedIn. Evaluating existing technology with research into existing use cases, and facilitating the rest of the team are other time consuming but imperative activities.
Chris’ role is far more extensive than in-office work. He regularly speaks at broadcast and internal communication conferences, conveying the importance of digital engagement and change. Communication with executives and company representatives is fundamental in the journey to tackling challenges businesses face in order to adopt digital strategies. It also means that the message about the future of video technology is circulated as much as possible.

Chris pursues innovation in the company, constantly looking at the most advanced technology to make sure that 27partners has new projects to work on all the time. He is most excited, like many members of the digital age, about Virtual Reality and renewable energy technology.

As a CTO, no one assigns you work or tells you what to do, you have to be constantly planning, working out what needs to be done, designing, delegating, evaluating and so on, to keep the company moving forward. Keeping up to date with the ever changing technology is a key part of the job description, considering how it might affect the organisation, the wider business industry and what potential it has for future use cases.

One thing is clear when it comes to being a CTO; you have to be enthralled by technology. If you want executive level responsibility for a company’s digital engagement, a job list as long as your arm and potentially some power in the future direction of modern businesses and the digital age, then a chief technology officer might just be the dream job.

No Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment replies are not available offline