Navigating through the Ever Changing Road Towards Business Success

Companies today are hungry for advice, knowledge, and direction that is laser focused on delivering the most value for their customers. Often, this requires breaking away from traditional process and methods of the past and companies are looking for Chief Technology Advisors to provide insights and expertise.

So the saying goes, “times ... they are-a changin'”,  and doing business these days is no exception. In business today, we have a few guarantees pertaining to change:

• Client expectations will change regularly
• Technology will continue to disrupt and innovate
• Compliance regulations will continue to evolve
• Traditional business will continue to experience impacts

These guarantees create incredible opportunities for companies that can understand and navigate the associated threats and risks that accompany the guarantees. From my experience over the last 24 months as a Chief Technology Advisor (CTA), most of my clients that lead fast growing companies want to engage with a CTA that can provide insights and direction to help navigate and manage these “business guarantees”; they know this will drive more revenue, more margin, and great client experiences.

To be a successful and effective CTA, you must understand that your success is inextricably linked and intertwined with your clients’ success. This means having the ability to see the bigger business journey and the road your client needs to be on in order for their success and the success of their customers.

Being a great CTA doesn’t mean you are a “technology weenie” taking risks on unproven technology; it means having the ability to leverage technology and evolve through a digital transformation enabling exceptional customer experiences for your clients. This includes understanding their business, removing roadblocks, automating, delivering vision, and strategies with supporting actionable technologies and plans to help clients reach their goals.

In order to realize an actionable plan, a great CTA must be able to execute, be results oriented, “thick skinned”, and activity driven; at the core, be able to experiment to prove it works (proof of concept), change process and workflows where needed, and delegate to get things done. You must engage with your clients' teams and don’t ever look in from the outside in a ivy tower fashion.

In additional to delivering direction on technology trends, evolution, and process, a CTAs plan must also contain organizational goals that align with the evolution of technology. I’ve always said a great CTO can learn to become a great CEO of a technology company, but it’s usually not the case the other way around. This is because clients appreciate partners and leaders who truly understand and are credible not only in their business, but also in the associated technologies and trends. Clients and customers love tech savvy organizations that are constantly looking out for and integrating technology solutions and trends that best aligns to their needs - and additionally are front-line contacts with them thus building great relationships and trust.

A great CTA can manage change for their clients by partnering with them on the road in their journey. The focus can’t just be on technology, it has to also be on the “big picture” that includes the clients goals and their customers’ goals. A great CTA is able to become a passionate part of the “family” of their client and their customers. Your client has to trust you as a credible advisor whenever they need advice and direction now and well into the future. A great CTA is also engaged in the community as a spokesperson on technology, family, and business topics adding value to their portfolio of offerings.

We know change in business is inevitable; and it’s pretty much guaranteed. We also know that a great CTA can make a huge and positive difference to their clients’ success to help navigate through changes by embracing technology, tools, process, and people; and be a true partner who cares about their goals and is considered part of the family.  Good luck on your journey!