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Loading...The scene of the crime was gruesome.
After a series of poor decisions the company was left gasping for air as it tried to re-structure its technical architecture and unburden its technical debt.
In the end the business never recovered. Who was responsible for this heinous act?
After the forensics team finished their investigation it was found to be none other than the company’s own CTO.
Join our Munich Meetup event on Monday 27th November at Werk1 to learn how to prevent common CTO mistakes. (This event ended, you can download the presentation here.)
CTO mistakes can result in a company setback. You can download the slides here – I shared my experience of how to avoid company destroying decisions.
Prevent Business Fatalities
After watching a number of CTOs fatally wound their businesses by making preventable mistakes, I decided enough was enough. I couldn’t just sit around as a good business’ potential goes to waste.
So, on November 27th at our Munich Meetup event I will share 5 different stories where I saw CTO’s committing critical errors and sinking a company or overcoming obstacles to keep their business afloat.
Let’s take, for example the old fable of the CEO that cried time-to-market.
Product development is well underway but, the shareholders want to see faster progress and the CEO is pressured to push out results. He approaches his CTO and says,
“Let’s get this thing moving a bit faster. Choose a quick solution now and we’ll come back to fix the code up later.”
The CTO obliges – taking the quick & dirty way out. Technical debt can be taken care of after the fact, right? To put it shortly, it can. But, only if your business survives long enough!
Opting for the easy solution, the CTO overlooked some security concerns. The company got hacked, leaked private data, and were wiped off the market faster than you can say “technical debt” 5 times fast.
Preventing CTO Mistakes
Mistakes can be prevented or even fixed after they happen. So, mixed in with my cautionary tales will be stories of heroic struggle and redemption. CTO’s can make or break a company and it can be more difficult than it seems at times to use your best judgement. After seeing both the good and bad decisions made throughout different working experiences, as well as making and fixing a few mistakes of my own, I am ready to coach others on how to avoid potentially business crushing problems.
So, if you are in or around Munich on November 27th, I ask that you join me at the Munich Meetup event. I will share my stories, give advice on how to prevent CTO mistakes and answer any of your questions.
Read more:
- Make CTOs great again!
- Preliminary signs of your CTO’s technical and psychological depression
- How to manage technical debt
- Gathering reliable data to appreciate Agile performance, from Developers to the CEO
Learn more about the author, Cornel FATULESCU
