Today I passed by an article which stated that:
Gartner is predicting that by 2015, 25% of organizations will have a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and further estimated that 20% of existing chief information officers (CIOs) have already taken on some of the responsibilities of the CDO.
The world is going digital. If you still didn’t realize this maybe it’s time for you to crawl out from under that rock. Nowadays, how well information is used may determine the success of a service or product.
Now, with this new role a lot of questions popped up, many are asking about how its different from the CIO role and if this role can be handled by the CIO or not. From my perspective, everyone can do anything if they wanted to, but specializing and focusing in one thing is always better. We live a world where all things are powered by technology that’s a fact, meaning that a CIO would focus on the back-office technology, when the CDO will have the responsibility to use technology to connect with the customer and digital platforms.
Technology + Marketing = New Enterprise Leader
In this digital era the challenges & opportunities for businesses are enormous. Therefore, it is needed to have someone who can oversee the full range of digital strategies and drive change across the organization. Social media and the new technologies are somehow reshaping how the consumers behave. Smarter, quicker and advanced mobile telephony makes it a must for companies to adapt and be up to date and speed.
This decade introduced a number of new roles in the technology sector and here comes an new one …
CIO – The head/ person in-charge of information systems and IT
CTO – An individual chosen to bring broader technological vision, direction & management to a company
CDO – An executive who is essentially in charge of tech evolution
We can see that the cheap technology have become powerful, that’s why there has to be someone in a company who can figure out the most clever ways to utilize this cheap technology, and that’s person is the CDO.
PS: CIO/CTO’s shouldn’t be threatened by this new role, because the CDO will be focusing on people, not hardware, on social networks, not supply chains. Social, mobile, and new means to communicate with customers will become the critical transition for business and we should be ready!
What do you think of this new role?!
Mustafa Ali
This is the reality and the need of todays fast moving orginazations. The CDO will surely play a significant role in the way an orginization sees to use #social media.
One can see the momentum in this role already; google “Chief Digital Officer jobs” and you’ll be amazed at the results.