Great Article from Anil Dash that popped into my feeds today (even though it seems to have been published back in August). It hits on a number of themes that have been running through my head for a while.
I am not as erudite as Anil - but I have long felt that companies need to forget the role of CIO/CTO et al - since their business is by definition - tech. And I don't care who you are - it is. And if it isn't - it should be.
It all started years ago, as I realized that a 'tech at the table' allows others 'at the table' to believe that they do not need to understand the emerging technology landscape. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Example
Back in the 80s, I was always stunned by how little understanding of Marketing, Business and Tech people had in the 'MarCom' teams of various organizations. 'We do graphics and design.' 'We write.'
Thankfully those days are behind us. Sadly, the virus has spread into all kinds of people inside of organizations. Time to wake up.
Three choice quotes to wet your appetite - but why not just go read the article.
Similarly, it's easiest to understand Uber as a machine for converting publicly-planned metropolitan transportation networks into privately-controlled automated dispatch systems; the fact that an app is used to achieve that transition is almost incidental to the overarching goal of owning a market.
and
When we see a company like Theranos unravel from being a widely-lauded medical technology pioneer to being investigated in a criminal probe for misrepresenting its products, one of the reasons the scam could be perpetuated for so long was because the company, its founder and its investors all shielded themselves under the cultural cover of being a glamorous member of the 'tech industry' rather than a prosaic medical supplier.
and
... why does it matter what we call the industry overall? The reason is simple: A reductive name for the industry masks an enormous set of social challenges that we need to tackle quickly.