In this ever-evolving landscape of technology, one of the most common myths we still hear is: “You don’t need to understand technology to move to a leadership position in a tech company.”
This line of thought is often supported by quoting Jack Ma, who famously admitted he wasn’t a “tech guy” and yet built a global empire with Alibaba. Even though inspiring, this example is rooted in a very different era of technology adoption, when the internet itself was new, competition was limited, and the primary challenge was building trust in digital commerce.
𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿: 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆.
If you don’t understand technology, you either confuse your team or cause trouble for your clients.
𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴.
𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆.
Today, stakeholders ask tough questions about underlying tech stack, security, compliance, and scalability. A leadership position ex: A Sales Head who cannot answer or at least frame them convincingly risks losing credibility, or end up in false promises regardless of their business acumen.
Whether you are in sales, marketing, support, HR, or operations, if you aspire to move into leadership in a tech company, understanding technology is no longer optional.
In this article, we share our perspective on why understanding technology is essential for anyone aspiring to move into leadership positions in today’s fast-moving world.
