Part 6: A seat in the boardroom
19% of tech leaders report to the COO and 15% to the CFO. CEO accountability around tech was the highest in the US, with 70% of tech leaders reporting directly to the CEO, compared with only 62% in the UK.
Despite technology’s importance, only 75% of respondents said that their technology leaders sit on the board or executive committee, suggesting that organizations are prioritizing other departments and other senior roles above the technology function. In the US, representation at board level was far higher at 84%.
Despite progress in this area, there is clearly still a gap between the role technology plays as a strategic enabler of business success and technology leaders having an equal voice at the highest level of an organization.In terms of responsibilities, the majority (82%) of technology teams have been given responsibility for cyber security, while 64% are in charge of data science and 58% take control of technology product creation and revenue generating software or platforms. Overall, only 44% of our focus group work for companies which have their own revenue generating product or platform.
“There are a myriad of C-level tech titles from CIO to CTO to CDO. The title is less important in my view than the level. It must be ‘chief’, otherwise no matter where you report or sit, you won’t be taken seriously by your peers, colleagues, and community.”
“When considering titles that appear on the board, one crucial one that’s usually missing is the chief transformation officer. It used to be that technology leaders were responsible for ‘IT enabled change’, but they now have other priorities. Perhaps it’s time to give this title more emphasis, given change is now a constant and sudden, dramatic market shift an increasing phenomenon.”
John Sillitoe, Director of the Genomic Surveillance Unit, Wellcome Sanger Institute
