Who Should Lead Your Digital Transformation?

Who has to lead us?

Who are the people that we call the CEO or CMO? If these names are nearly there, then who is a CDO? Let’s find it out together. Not so long ago, an interesting article appeared on the Internet. It describes why we need good managers who work with digital transformation. It also mentioned several aspects that we need to discover in our companies. Well:

1. To make a transformational vision of how your company will look and differ from others in the digital world.
2. To involve more and more workers who will make that vision a complete reality.
3. To try to direct the company’s energy through digital governance.
4. Breaking down silos at the leadership level to drive digital transformation together.

Sure, all those aspects are good, and we agree with them, but the main point is, how do you personally understand this digital leadership? Most often, the company and all its workers need to work together to achieve goals and so on. But the main thing is that companies don’t have digitally savvy management teams. Without a person who is responsible for something, it will be hard to achieve many results. We all know that if there isn’t a director, employees won’t work.

So, according to this problem, we propose to create a completely new position called Chief Digital Officer (CDO). This person will be a permanent part of the team, and he doesn’t need to be a genius in the IT sphere. But what he has to know is how to manage a lot of internal and external changes.

So, stay with us and get to know the information about the CEO, CMO, and what is more important—the CDO (how he/she should look, his responsibilities, and so on). It will start with a very accurate and precise discussion of whether he is needed or not.

Is your CEO up to it?

From the ideal point of view, a CEO you have now has to know all these peculiarities of the digital transformation world. He/she is the person who represents a company. Well, many companies don’t have a CEO, but if they do, not all of them are so highly educated to be called the best CEO.

The first right reaction of any CEO who understands that he isn’t a person who will answer so many questions is to find senior management who can handle the job. And the best choice for that will be a CDO.

Can the Chief Marketing Officer lead the digital transformation?

CMOs completely understand the power of the digital sphere. Why is it so? Because their department was the leader for the majority of online activities that were made for the last two decades.

The main problem is that marketers look at the company from their point of view, which means from a marketing-centric one. But what they need is some holistic and transversal view of everything that is going on. The IT director faces the same problems. He understands the technology better than anyone else; he owns the IT strategy and platforms. So, again, this position can’t answer all the questions people will have. Maybe CDO will?

Marketing vs Technology

As we know, transformation is not about marketing or technology. It is connected with the whole company, everything and everyone is involved, but it is not because of technology; it is because of how society is using technology.

Sure, maybe all this is not about your CMO or CIO. They probably have broad knowledge, skills, and education, and they can answer almost every question. But it couldn’t be in reality; if the person wants to change a qualification and be the person to shape the digital transformation, then they would have to leave their current job to take up the new position of leading the transformation. In another case, it will be hard to combine the role of the traditional manager with the role of the great transformer. It is simply unbelievable for a person of a narrow qualification to know all the information, which is really wide and expected from a CDO.

We really need a Chief Digital Officer

As you understood, we really need the Chief Digital Officer. It is the person who will answer all the calls that other managers can’t. It is a person who is absolutely new on the CxO level, but he/she will run there for a long time. The main reason why we all need CDOs is that current CEOs can’t answer necessary questions anymore; they don’t have such broad knowledge as CDOs. Current CEOs create awkward situations and can’t run out of the company in that way to make it as popular as Uber, Airbnb, or Tesla. This problem needs to be resolved immediately. So, what does the CDO look like?

Your CDO needs the following capabilities:

A person has to be a complete and absolute leader to be able to face any problem and deal with transformation.

to create a completely new company which will answer almost every question or request

to understand and carefully manage all the politics and languages of IT, to understand finances, marketing, and strategies.

a challenger of everything that is already in place on a strategic, operational, and process level.

A person has to be highly educated in all spheres: e-commerce, transactions, marketing, social media, mobile, and data.

It can sound awkward, Who is capable of knowing everything and being able to manage each situation? But that is exactly the point! We have to educate such people, and in this case, companies will definitely work it out; they will increase incomes and their own popularity. So, if you are now studying to become a CEO then maybe you can study a little bit more and get a better position that will be so powerful, needed, and interesting. CDO is the future of digital transformation, so wait for it, and you will see how the IT sphere is changing.

About Author:

My name is Erica Fleming. I support the effective adoption of new technologies or ways of working within writing by communicating complex information in an informative and inspiring way. My works can be found at https://freebooksummary.com  I’m fond of writing articles for students and helping with essays.