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Successful digital transformation is good for business: Organizations whose tech-enabled transformations exceed their goals forecast demonstrate higher average revenue growth than organizations whose efforts are falling short of expectations, according to a study by Ernst & Young LLP.
Turning investments into positive business outcomes doesn’t always follow a straight line. CIOs leading these efforts must navigate a changing business landscape and a variety of business stakeholders with different agendas. CIOs may find themselves paired up with chief digital officers (CDOs), who are often given remit to define, incubate and deploy innovative digital initiatives.
The CDO and CIO roles are converging because the role of technology itself has been elevated.
Technology leadership is becoming less about titles and organizations structures and more about aligning across the business to match technology needs with business outcomes. The CDO and CIO roles are converging because the role of technology itself has been elevated. These individuals are becoming more business-oriented and entrepreneurial, and they’re strategically thinking like a CEO or COO. That means the senior technology leader’s shifting role – regardless of whether their title is CIO, CDO, or something else – now involves integrating business and technology strategies. CIOs have asked for a seat at the table, and now that they have it, they need something to say. The most successful individuals are the ones with the acumen to articulate a compelling vision to the rest of the organization. Technology “thought leaders” can be defined by four key attributes:
Business model thinkers consider the art of the possible, They understand the role of technology in their company’s business and industry, as well as adjacent industries, to provide broader context around the impact of technology on business and revenue growth.
Technology leaders need to think about their end users – for example, customers, employees, and partners– and work backwards to design experiences that help them do things more easily and efficiently. To do this successfully requires deeper functional domain expertise in areas like sales & marketing, supply chain, customer service, and finance.
Alignment across the business relies heavily on the relationships that technology leaders can build with their C-suite colleagues. There is a consulting and translator mindset, wherein they need the ability to speak about technology in business language and then act as the translator to turn business objectives into tech-enablement solutions. When done well, the result is “shared accountability” across the C-Suite and a sense of “co-investment” in technology-enabled outcomes.
Organizations can no longer do everything in-house and are relying more heavily on strategic partners for a variety of tools, services, and expertise. Technology leaders need to understand the role that external partners can play in delivering outcomes, then define and execute on a clear buy versus build strategy to drive end-to-end delivery of services and capabilities to meet business objectives.
Building your digital foundation
These attributes are the start of your digital dream team. Organizations should build on them by developing leaders at all levels including:
CxO leadership: Senior-most business and technology strategists
Portfolio leadership: Deep technologists who can help create a sustainable technology stack that moves at speed using services such as hybrid cloud, microservices, and automation
Delivery leadership: People with deep experience driving large-scale systems development and integration
The idea is to grow more leaders with the right attributes to succeed in this new world where technology is at the center of business. It may take a few years for this dream team to come to fruition. But once it does, this new generation of leaders will be able to rapidly identify and translate trends into actionable business strategy.
Summary
At the end of the day, success depends on increased collaboration among the technology organization, business unit leaders, and functional leaders so that you’re infusing technology into everything you do.
Helping clients leverage technology for distinct customer experiences, enriched careers and lasting competitive advantage. Father of two daughters. Passionate about developing future leaders.
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