The Executive Brief
This week I’m letting you in on a dirty little secret that nobody talks about: a major feature of any CTOs job in criticism.
As I mentioned last week, this article was inspired by news stories that were critical of OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s. There were stories about both her role in ousting CEO Sam Altman in December and the answers she gave regarding OpenAI’s new text-to-video tool Sora.
This article isn’t about Mira. It’s about how CTOs are criticism magnets.
Normally it doesn’t make headlines, but I can assure you that it happens constantly to all CTOs. I want you to be prepared for it if you’re new to the role or if it is something that you aspire to.
Btw, before you dive into it, here are the most interesting bits in technology from the last week.
The EU AI Act was passed by the EU Parliament on March 13, 2024. Fines will range from €7.5m or 1.5% of a company’s total worldwide turnover – whichever is higher. Enforcement is likely to start in 2025.
This is worth looking at for anyone doing work with developing or using AI to you know exactly where are the boundaries of these new regulations. Other laws are likely to be influence by the EU version so we expect more of the same in the months and years ahead.McDonald’s (yes, the fast food joint) suffered an IT outage that affected stores worldwide, with some being forced to close for the day.
Resilience. It’s kind of a thing for tech leaders. You have to wonder how much money was lost if even a fraction of the 40,000+ McDonald’s locations were affected.Cognition, a recently formed AI startup backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and other tech industry leaders, announced a fully autonomous AI software engineer called “Devin”.
This one will be sure to catch the eye of the C-Suite and stoke developer fears about being replaced. While there is no word yet on things like code quality, security, and Devin’s ability to create complex applications, it’s safe to say that this is probably not yet a drop in replacement for a developer. If you are a tech leader, this is worth keeping an eye on.
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Getting Criticized is a Key Part of a CTOs Role
One day I was complaining about some problems I was having with a large, $30M dollar technology initiative to a fellow CTO of a world-famous tech company.
After a little while of listening he said,
“I completely get the issues you’re dealing with. But you should know that the job of a CTO is unlike any other executive. Our role is to accept the blame for everything.”
What?!
I was so shocked I think my mouth may have dropped open slightly.
But in that moment, I realized he was totally right.
Company not making sales? “The product or technology stinks!”
Marketing not generating leads? “Oh, it’s the marketing automation software that’s at fault. Call the CTO!"
HR unable to keep staff? “Oh, the CTO isn’t managing the team well.”
Financial overruns? “Our CTO just likes to spend!”
Support Team not meeting customer expectations? “Well, obviously the software just isn’t good enough.”
Executive Team unable to make good decisions? “Well, you know, the CTO is a naysayer and just isn’t positive enough!”
Rogue nation-state decided to hack the product? “It’s the CTOs fault! They didn’t put in enough protections!”
Sounds ridiculous to blame the CTO for all of these, right?
But these examples are actually accurate. Yes, accurate! Well, at least from the perspective of non-technology executives.
There are two factors at play as to why CTOs (and CIOs) often get blamed for everything:
First, it’s well established that people fear things they don’t understand. And this fear can often express itself as resentment and hostility. So, if the reality is that even in the digital age we live in, most non-tech executives barely understand technology, then it makes sense for these execs to “go after” the CTO. It’s driven by fear.
Second, technology is more or less at the heart of every modern company. Nothing works unless the technology works as well. Sales is done using a CRM. HR is done using a HRIS system. Marketing is done using Marketing Automation software. Technology is crucial to the success of every team & department. So, it’s quite natural for these teams to point to the CTO when anything goes wrong.
CTOs cannot escape these two realities. At least not anytime soon.
Let’s look at a popular example: OpenAI and their CTO, Mira Murati was recently criticized for her answers to how Sora (their new text-to-video tool) leverages publicly available information. A number of media outlets & pundits took Mira to task because OpenAI uses everyday peoples’ social media to build their product and profit from it. Of course, we know this decision was not Mira’s alone. The OpenAI CEO, executive team and many others likely had a hand in it. But Mira got the brunt of the criticism.
So, it’s best to develop a thick skin about the opinions and criticisms that inevitably come your way at CTO. It’s not always easy, but like any other skill as a leader, developing mental toughness when it comes to criticism is possible and very important to a CTOs success.
Knowing people’s natural fear of technology (AI, anyone?) as well as technologies immersion into every part of modern businesses should help to depersonalize things. And if you remain unemotional about it you can build specific mitigating strategies for yourself when you find yourself in these kinds of situations.
Closing Thoughts
I’ll end with one more example.
One of the best CTOs in the world right now is probably Parker Harris at Salesforce.
He’s not very well known outside of tech circles but he’s one of the original founders of Salesforce and has spearheaded numerous multi-billion dollar initiatives at the company over the last 20 years. He was recently criticized for not moving fast enough on AI within Salesforce.
What does this tell us? You can be a world class technologist, literally building one the most successful technology companies in the last two decades and you will STILL get criticized.
Parker reacted well to the criticism and is moving fast to ramp up on AI at Salesforce. You can tell he’s got thick skin.
Here are some other articles from Technocratic that you may enjoy as well: