It’s 2012. My software company is working with one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. They have tremendous expertise they can share with their clients. They’re so large, though, that they’re completely siloed and can’t easily share this organizational knowledge quickly.

The agency’s chief strategic and chief technology officers have a vision to unite their worldwide employees so they can do this at the drop of a hat. And that’s where my company comes in.

We’re hired to work with their CTO to provide instant access to all talent across their organization. We build data bridges to different technologies on different platforms located at different places around the world.

It’s some pretty fancy stuff, and we really have to roll up our sleeves on this huge undertaking. Nothing like this has been done before.

Once our software is in place, the agency can access the intelligence of everyone in their entire global organizational community for the good of their clients in just a couple of clicks. For them, we created a new story where connecting to talent can be quick, efficient, and a game changer in their business.

My special guest today, Etienne de Bruin, has spent a career in software development and inside the C-suite. In this episode of The Storytelling School podcast, you’ll learn how he drives the vision and execution of multiple stories for various organizations around the world and get answers to questions such as:

What role does a chief technology officer (CTO) play in the story of a company? And how does Etienne’s company help support the story of CTOs everywhere?

• How the common image of a CTO is different than the real story
• How making connections can change your story
• How to keep people in a community engaged in sharing stories

Etienne de Bruin began his career as a software developer in his native South Africa before moving to Germany, where he joined a startup building innovative products in the data encryption space. Then he moved to San Diego, where he managed the supply chain and business intelligence of a biotech startup.

From 2005 to 2015, Etienne co-founded a company, where he served as CTO, navigating SaaS product development in a rapidly scaling environment and establishing himself as a highly effective C-level executive. After serving many organizations as advisory board member or CTO, Etienne founded 7CTOs, a peer group and coaching organization supporting CTOs, technical founders, and other executive leaders.