Session Speaker: Gemma Whitehouse, Ingeniva
Theme: Future Facing: Technology and Operations
Date: Summer Trimester, June 2026
At a recent Magma session, external speaker Gemma Whitehouse introduced a deceptively simple question: what would you do if you had a CTO for a day?
What followed was less a discussion about technology roles and more an exploration of how SME leaders think about technology, AI and strategic decision-making. Members tested ideas, challenged assumptions and shared experiences from their own businesses. The conversation revealed something many leaders recognise but rarely articulate: someone is already making technology decisions. The question is whether they're doing it deliberately.
Technology has become impossible to separate from business strategy.
Not because every company is becoming a technology company. Most aren't. But whether you're running a manufacturing business, a professional services firm, a training provider or a retailer, technology increasingly shapes how work gets done, how customers are served and where competitive advantage comes from.
The challenge is that most SMEs haven't evolved their leadership structures at the same pace.
There may be someone responsible for IT. There may be external suppliers. There may be software vendors and consultants. Yet when decisions become strategic rather than operational, the responsibility often lands with the owner or CEO.
Not because they are the most technical person in the business. Simply because nobody else owns the question.
Gemma's central challenge was to rethink what a CTO actually does.
The traditional image of a CTO is often a technical specialist managing systems, software or engineering teams. In reality, strategic technology leadership is less about technology itself and more about connecting technology to commercial outcomes.
The role is not simply to ask what technology can do.
It is to ask which opportunities matter, which should be ignored, where investment should be directed and how technology supports the wider goals of the business.
That distinction became particularly relevant when discussing AI.
The conversation repeatedly returned to a simple observation. The difficult decisions are rarely technical. The difficult decisions are commercial. They require judgement about priorities, customer value, risk, timing and resource allocation.
In other words, they are leadership decisions.
As members explored their own challenges, a pattern emerged. Very few of the issues being discussed were actually technology problems.
The conversations centred on customer friction, data quality, compliance requirements, hidden knowledge, reporting demands, operational bottlenecks and inconsistent processes.
Technology sat somewhere within each of these challenges, but it was rarely the root cause.
Many leaders recognised situations where software could automate a task but could not solve the underlying issue. In some cases, greater automation would simply allow an inefficient process to run faster.
The discussion also exposed the tension many businesses are experiencing with AI.
Leaders are surrounded by new tools, new platforms and constant promises of productivity gains. Yet the real challenge is often deciding what deserves attention in the first place.
The businesses making progress were not necessarily those adopting the most technology. They were the ones asking better questions about where technology could create genuine value.
Perhaps the most important insight from the session is that every SME already has someone performing the CTO function.
In most cases, it is the owner, managing director or CEO. They may not carry the title. They may not view themselves as a technology leader. Yet they are already making decisions about investment, priorities, capability, risk and innovation.
The danger is that these decisions are often made reactively.
A new AI tool appears. A supplier makes a recommendation. A competitor adopts a platform. A problem emerges, and software is suggested as the solution. Without clear ownership of technology strategy, businesses can find themselves making a series of disconnected decisions that never quite add up to a coherent direction.
That does not mean every CEO needs to become a technology expert.
In fact, the session suggested the opposite.
The role of leadership is not to understand every platform, model or technical detail. It is to ensure technology decisions remain connected to commercial objectives and long-term priorities.
For some businesses, that responsibility will remain with the leadership team.
For others, the answer may be access to strategic technology expertise through a fractional CTO, advisory board member or specialist partner. Not somebody to manage systems, but somebody who can help navigate complexity, challenge assumptions and provide a clearer path through a rapidly changing landscape.
As technology becomes more central to growth and competitiveness, strategic technology leadership is becoming increasingly valuable. The question is not whether the capability is needed. The question is where it comes from.
So, where did the thinking end up? Quite simply that
Technology should optimise a business, not simply automate it.
This is an important point because whilst automation focuses on removing effort, optimisation focuses on improving outcomes.
Sometimes that means introducing technology. Sometimes it means redesigning a process. Sometimes it means preserving human judgement where it creates value.
The goal is not maximum automation. The goal is a better business.
Most SMEs do not need a full-time CTO.
What they do need is clarity about who is making strategic technology decisions and how those decisions connect to the future of the business.
The pace of technological change is unlikely to slow. AI will continue to create new opportunities, new risks and new distractions.
The leadership challenge is not keeping up with every development.
It is to ensure that somebody is asking the right questions.
You should already have a CTO. The challenge is to see that role as strategically important