Should your leaders come from your industry / market?
Good question and I suspect, a good and healthy topic for debate.
Historically it was almost the default position and the question was less about whether they should, but more specifically – ‘where in your competitor landscape would you like me to look?’
But it’s not so much the case lately. And not for one specific reason, but a range of reasons.
The short answer is – well, it depends…
For me to talk about the challenges across multiple sectors and disciplines would take an age, so we’ll just look at technology leadership today. Even still, it’s a huge and fascinating topic so we’ll just look at a handful of interesting dynamics here.
There are in fact quite a few factors that need to be considered that mean the answer could be different even for two similar businesses seeking to make a similar hire.
It is easy to assume that in technology leadership, we would always be looking for someone immersed in the client’s technology. But not necessarily so. Whilst our incoming CTO must be able to grasp the challenges facing the process of developing technology in that space, the key challenge may lessen or even negate the need for deep domain specific knowledge.
Example Key Challenges
I have been involved in many instances where the key challenge is improving time to market. A business may have great people, IP and legacy. But if they are dying in degrees by missing every sequential window of commercial opportunity through a woeful NPI process and discipline record, I would argue the ability to implement the structures and methodologies to reverse this are key.
In another instance where I was seeking a Group CTO for a newly formed group created by the PE acquisition of three businesses that whilst operating broadly in the same technology space, functioned in very different ways. The challenge was very much about modernisation and effective communication across sites. Yes, we absolutely needed someone who understood the dynamics of leading sizable multi-disciplined teams, but certainly not a subject matter expert.
Alignment with Growth and Ambition expectations
Business size is of course a major factor. The expectations of where our leader sits in the detail of the design lifecycle is very much dictated by the size and aspirations of the operation.
In many instances the client business may have ambitious, or even aggressive growth aspirations. In those circumstances, the CTO of today with say a team of 10 reports faces very different challenges from the CTO of with a total future team of 100 or more spread across multiple locations and cultures. In these circumstances we need to pay close attention to the capacity of individuals to grow with the role or even consider a plan where we ultimately hire above them as the business needs change.
And of course, not all businesses are targeting aggressive growth. I have worked with many privately owned / family-owned businesses that are stable, debt-free, cash positive organisations where the dynamic is more about stability, risk-reduction, efficiency improvement and trust. It is easy to be somewhat dismissive of such aspirations, but such businesses will often weather challenging economic times better than their more aggressive counterparts.
In these circumstances we need to look very closely at the personal characteristics, values and aspirations of potential candidates alongside their key technical competences.
I always enjoy discussing challenges and solutions for hiring in nuanced and complex hiring plans so do get in touch if I can be of assistance to your plans.