Every business is now a tech business. Yet many boards are still lacking technology skills in 2024 and they have been for quite some time. In 2016, we saw that only 2% of FTSE 350 companies have a technology specialist in the boardroom¹. In 2020 research showed technology was the most commonly cited skill gap on FTSE 100 boards². The stats for other non-FTSE organisations aren’t readily available but from our experience the technology representation on those boards is often even weaker.
A report in 2023 conducted by Board Intelligence and the Corporate Governance Institute revealed that nearly two out of every three Board Members still feel like they don’t have the knowledge to handle new technologies properly. It claimed, 82% of Board Members felt they needed to make more out of technology to enhance boardroom performance, 60% believed they had received insufficient cyber-resilience training in the last 12 months and only a fifth are exploring the potential (and impact) of AI tools like ChatGPT3.
We asked 65 CTOs (Chief Technology Officers) why CTOs would make great Non-Executive Directors, and here are the top 10 answers they came up with.
1 Dispel the fear of tech!
CTOs on boards as NEDs can help organisations navigate through tech hype, and dispel any fear of tech. They can enable companies to make decisions with a stronger understanding of the implications on the technology strategy.
2 Identify risks
A CTO can support the organisation to impact-assess both cyber and other general tech risks and are better placed to identify what is a true threat and what isn’t. And when facing a live compromise, they can help judge the adequacy of mitigations and actions.
3 Spend wisely
The scale of investment needed in technology can be daunting especially if you have a CTO coming in that wants to spend a lot of money. Having an independent CTO on the board can help reassure the board when the spend is justified.
4 Seeing the bigger picture
Holding a longer term vision for technology and an understanding of the wider technology market.
5 Gain insights into technical people and technical teams and how they operate
Often the technology teams can work in quite different ways to other parts of the business, they often speak a different language and work within regular shorter timescales (‘sprints’).
6 Sounding board for the CTO/ individual with responsibility for technology
The executive CTO will have someone to talk to at board level who actually understands the challenges/ opportunities the organisation is facing.
7 Gain access to networks.
CTOs generally have strong technical networks across multiple organisations, so they can help the business gain access to professional support when needed.
Their mindset and experience helps them support the board in considering areas outside of technology too…
8 Deal with complexity and uncertainty
This is something CTOs are accustomed to, and making decisions with incomplete information.
9 Hyper problem solving
This comes readily to CTOs given their engineer mindset and background.
10 Experience hiring in tight markets
Whilst for many boards the challenges of hiring in a tight labour market is relatively new, CTOs have been used to hiring in challenging conditions for some time.
Can Dynamic Boards help you?
- If you’d like to attract CTOs to consider a Non-Executive role on your board, get in touch with us and we can reach out to candidates on our database with technology experience. Email hello@dynamicboards.co.uk
- If you have experience in technology and you’d like to consider applying for board roles, please click here to view our board roles. It’s free to join Dynamic Boards and view our board roles. The last thing this industry needs is more pay to view or exclusive access clubs!
¹ https://www.cio.com/article/199599/only-2-of-ftse-350-boards-include-a-cio-report-recommends-having-a-board-level-cto-or-cio.html
² https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/ftse-100-boards-exposed-by-lack-of-future-talent#gref
3 https://www.thecorporategovernanceinstitute.com/insights/guides/boards-and-technology-adapt-or-perish/?srsltid=AfmBOoprQDN07N1Qg-xD1MUZVXyFd-HfB-gMuvrE6AzXMtyCuJg4-KPd
