For chief technology officers
The build-versus-buy argument has been had four times, and nobody wrote down why it keeps coming back.
The CTO seat splits differently in every company, which makes generic advice useless. What helps is eight people who have drawn the internal/product line somewhere and can say what it cost them.
01Decisions
What CTOs bring to a table
Three that come up repeatedly. Yours does not have to be on this list — it has to be undecided.
- Deciding what is genuinely differentiating, and buying the rest without admitting defeat
- Platform team funding when contract rates exceed your senior salary band
- Where the CTO/CIO boundary sits, and who owns the argument when it moves
02The room
Who you sit with
Format
Cross-functional Table
CTOs and CIOs at organisations where the boundary is genuinely contested.
Cap
Eight seats
Never nine. No direct competitors, and never two people from the same company.
Bring the decision you are carrying.
One paragraph. A person reads it within two business days.