I quite agree with Mr. Veldstra, and would add a few things.
1) Clojure isn't always fast, but it's fast enough.
2) When you need more speed, you can always write Java code and then trivially call into it. No need to worry that you'll be trapped by performance issues.
3) There's no need to get rid of your current Java infrastructure or code base. Clojure works WITH that code base, not INSTEAD of it. This will give most CTO's a warm, fuzzy feeling.
4) Clojure can easily and safely exploit multi-core processors, something that's about to become an issue. Given how difficult it is to make multi-threaded Java work correctly, this is a big deal.
5) It's going to make your developers a lot happier, which can produce a competitive hiring advantage. And the kind of developers you get are likely to be sharper. Given how dramatic the differences between developers can be, this is an especially important and (I think) underappreciated point.
As for CL, I think most CTO's will have a single question that's foremost in their minds: if Lisp has been around for half a century and CL for about a quarter of a century and they still don't have a good story for GUIs, sockets, and a clean-up language, why is any of that going to change if OurCorp starts using it?
That's pretty amusing, given that Clojure is a Lisp and we all know how unfriendly and unpopular and weird Lisp is. (You could look it up in that post you quite agree with.)
they still don't have a good story for GUIs, sockets, and a clean-up language
This reminds me of Gilbert Ryle's old line, "She came in a flood of tears and a sedan chair." What do these things have in common? And what on earth is a "clean-up language"?
most CTO's will have a single question that's foremost in their minds [...] why is any of that going to change if OurCorp starts using it?
It just doesn't matter. Lisp (including CL) is what it is, an amazing tool for those who want to take the time to learn it and a competitive advantage for those who figure out how to leverage it on a problem. It probably isn't going to become popular, and it certainly isn't going to go away. The ignorance of CTOs isn't going to affect it much either way.
As for CL, I think most CTO's will have a single question that's foremost in their minds: if Lisp has been around for half a century and CL for about a quarter of a century and they still don't have a good story for GUIs, sockets, and a clean-up language, why is any of that going to change if OurCorp starts using it?