Hi welcome to the front role. Spent a good amount of time in the CTO role.
Happy to chat offline.
Things I wish I knew:
The first law of learning business is tech folks can learn business far easier than business folks can learn tech. You have this.
Second law is no one should represent your voice. They should help present it.
The leadership team should be facilitating introductions to learn more about the business how they see fit. If it’s not proactively happening.. keep reading.
Learning business is as much about understanding what the business needs and how it can get there as accounting and finance.
Understand the type of cto you are there to be, there are many kind. I have a book somewhere that broke it down well but effectively it can vary.
Read into CIO roles and responsibilities as well as traditionally they made the decisions about tech
If your position is net new you are extra capacity. Be mindful of absorbing work from other areas that upholds the past vs change for the future.
Find a framework you like for your first 30-60-90 days.
First, tech should never ever roll into Finance, only CEO. You are now the leader of possibility and capability in the organization. It may ruffle feathers. Find all the reports from McKinsey, etc making this clear why. This will mean you’ll need to be a better communicator and self manager out of the gate.
Get an executive coach or mentor immediately. Once a week at minimum if not twice a week for the first few weeks. You will know when to ease off.
Setup your own way to communicate regularly with the entire company. Find all the meeting you May want a slot on.
Learn the phrase innovation accounting- how to measure what can’t be counted by dollars and cents. Your world can be undermined by folks who want to measure what suits them.
Digital transformation - take a few classes or certain immediately. Quicker than books. Be clear in whether the business is building the future, or catching up to the present.
Change management - take a cert immediately for it, it’s fine to read but only a 2-3 day thing. It will keep mbas with no track record at bay.
Togaf/Cobit - having something like this doesn’t hurt. At least read about it.
Agile/scrum - make sure you can talk the talk and walk the walk. Those words belong to you now. I’d probably lean towards agile.
Six sigma - this overlaps with others a over however a bit better known in the business world. Consider it.
If you want to become a better speaker look into a course like Roger Love’s speaking courses, you will discover how simply your voice is just an instrument like keyword and you can use it as well as the best.
Learn how to read and summarize simply when needed. It helps tremendously to present complex ideas simply to folks who just need to know to put the car in drive.
Happy to chat offline.
Things I wish I knew:
The first law of learning business is tech folks can learn business far easier than business folks can learn tech. You have this.
Second law is no one should represent your voice. They should help present it.
The leadership team should be facilitating introductions to learn more about the business how they see fit. If it’s not proactively happening.. keep reading.
Learning business is as much about understanding what the business needs and how it can get there as accounting and finance.
Understand the type of cto you are there to be, there are many kind. I have a book somewhere that broke it down well but effectively it can vary.
Read into CIO roles and responsibilities as well as traditionally they made the decisions about tech
If your position is net new you are extra capacity. Be mindful of absorbing work from other areas that upholds the past vs change for the future.
Find a framework you like for your first 30-60-90 days.
First, tech should never ever roll into Finance, only CEO. You are now the leader of possibility and capability in the organization. It may ruffle feathers. Find all the reports from McKinsey, etc making this clear why. This will mean you’ll need to be a better communicator and self manager out of the gate.
Get an executive coach or mentor immediately. Once a week at minimum if not twice a week for the first few weeks. You will know when to ease off.
Setup your own way to communicate regularly with the entire company. Find all the meeting you May want a slot on.
Learn the phrase innovation accounting- how to measure what can’t be counted by dollars and cents. Your world can be undermined by folks who want to measure what suits them.
Digital transformation - take a few classes or certain immediately. Quicker than books. Be clear in whether the business is building the future, or catching up to the present.
Change management - take a cert immediately for it, it’s fine to read but only a 2-3 day thing. It will keep mbas with no track record at bay.
Togaf/Cobit - having something like this doesn’t hurt. At least read about it.
Agile/scrum - make sure you can talk the talk and walk the walk. Those words belong to you now. I’d probably lean towards agile.
Six sigma - this overlaps with others a over however a bit better known in the business world. Consider it.
If you want to become a better speaker look into a course like Roger Love’s speaking courses, you will discover how simply your voice is just an instrument like keyword and you can use it as well as the best.
Learn how to read and summarize simply when needed. It helps tremendously to present complex ideas simply to folks who just need to know to put the car in drive.