The partnership between CTO and CEO is such a critical one because the CTO tends to be the creative innovator/implementer of strategy, whereas the CEO tends to be the pair of hands that steadies the ship when the CTO goes mad.
Quote from Bobby Healy, CTO of CarTrawler, in an article on PhocusWire this week.
Technically Speaking - Bobby Healy of CarTrawler
Healy is right when he argues that the bond between boss and Tech Head is an important one in travel brands - but how many companies have adhered to that?
This important consideration covers both established, larger players, as well as businesses starting out on the Road To World Domination (i.e. eager startups).
In brands that have many years under their belts (and lots of staff, overseeing intricate processes and external relationships), a CTO holds court with the boss alongside other c-level executives in the organization.
They may be vying for attention - and money - at the same time as the marketing department, or figures in human resources who want to hire more people.
In this sense the relationship is perhaps often more "political" than in a startup, where initiatives and corporate strategy play a large part.
In new businesses, however, such a close tie between the "thinker" and the "manager" is vital - thus why the CTO is perhaps the number one position to fill in a new business.
Web-based or tech-led startups in travel need someone to unravel the often technical complexity of what is being proposed.
They might not be the figure that reaches out to third parties to forge partnerships (that's the smooth-talking CEO) but they have to figure out how to build and integrate it all together.
And the relationship it works in a two-way form.
The wacky ideas of the innovator might need a brake applied every now and then - yet, equally, an unambitious leader may need to prodding to push the capabilities of the company.