Today I attended the EdgeTrend event where we have a panel of 5 people who are senior executives in local companies:
- Tom Kenny, President, NetBurner
- Jim Wilson, CTO, Tarari
- Geoff Siegel, VP Alaris Products, Cardinal Health
- Diana Stewart-Sanderbeck, Nokia
- Timothy Scott, President, Pharmatek Laboratories
Most of them were strong technologists before they crossed over to management. Two of them are graduates of LAMP and EPSE program here in UCSD. One of them (Diana) even though is not a technologist but have great insight since her job is to work with those type of technologists turned senior managers in her company.
It is an interesting seminar, certainly very pertinent to the audience of people in technology management. Some of the salient points:
- Advantages of technical background in the senior suite: analytical thinking in business issues; Understanding of company’s core technical differenciations; technical know-how comes handy when starting your own business (two of the panelists are serial entrepreneurs); Instant respect from technical staff; Not easily to be snowed by employees, vendors or clients on technical issues.
- Potential disadvantages: Larger ego; Pay less attention to the people side (touchy feely issues); Tend to think you are still a top technologist and still try to give solutions instead of asking questions.
- Advices: Spend more time on accounting and financing (and they are not the same), more time on marketing and sales (and they are not the same either); Work on the feedbacks on the job; When learning from leaders in the past, learn from their mistakes, not successes. Find the science in nonscience issues.