I have just recently been fired from a new firm which I helped “spin off” from a Fortune 10 company. After looking for info related to BAD CTOs, I came across an article on http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/0,39023731,20282457,00.htm which is a TechRepublic article.
The CTO in question has many of the characteristics of a “bad CTO”, but here are some others which I came delt with recently…
I was dismissed by the new CTO, whom I interviewed, and gave a less than stellar review of to the COO. The CTO has good technical knowledge, but too many of his “habits” are reflected in your article.
FAILURE to COMMUNICATE:
My being dismissed was sparked by my disagreement with his management, and relationship skills. As part of a 5 person technology team, including the CTO, I would expect to be given all the proper admin privileges, passwords, access to hardware, given instruction and other pertinent information regarding the new infrastructure. But this CTO failed to provide any of these things. I was expected to support the network, desktop, and hardware without being given one ounce of information even three days after our opening. The issue was not that he was too busy, that doesn’t wash as an excuse, but when confronted, his reply was, “that’s none of your business” Why wasn’t I told the only other support individual would not be in the next day to do an install at the CEO’s home office?. When asked again why I wasn’t told this, his reply was, “that’s none of your business”. Isn’t communicating to your subordinates his responsibility?
OVER SPENDING:
Our new technology infrastructure was originally proposed to be around $1 million (US) for about a 60 user base, and an infrastructure which dealt with real-time market data, and trading software. The original proposal was from a respectable integration firm who are experts in this niche market. But he eventually dismissed the proposal and redesigned the entire infrastructure. The new infrastructure ballooned to around $2.5 million. Is roughly 2 users for every server really a good decision?
RAISING VOICE to OTHERS:
Should a CTO holler to another manager relating to a technology related question? I would guess not, but this CTO’s way of explaining things to users is to over emphasis by yelling.
NO ACCOUNTABILTY:
This CTO has no accountability to anyone due to his expertise in the field. The other officers in the organization will not, and have not challenged his thinking, decisions, or actions. What would be a good “checks and balances” to a situation to this kind or scenario?
