Though just some years in the past the position had been predicted to be dissolved by now, the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) has moved to middle stage in corporations—and performs a vital position of their development and the endless and important digital transformation, new analysis from shopper connection non-profit MMA International determines.
The agency’s new collection of stories, MMA’s Nice CDO Debate Sequence: Is the CDO Position Extra Necessary than Ever?, in collaboration with the College of Oxford, takes a deep dive into the position of the now-critical CDO, which has advanced partly as a result of world pandemic that accelerated the necessity for corporations to seek out progressive methods to hook up with customers in a brand new and totally different regular. However the analysis signifies that CDOs are more and more proudly owning plenty of core capabilities which might be wanted to drive change, together with enterprise technique, new product growth, and expertise design, in addition to knowledge governance and know-how.
Six themes to emerge from 2021 CDO interviews:
Not solely have CDOs turn into more and more essential in main all essential inside change, however now additionally more and more have P&L duty, placing them in an excellent place for future management positions, together with the CEO spot.
“The position of the CDO has moved to center-stage at many corporations as they’ve realized that that disruption is ongoing and transformation is important, and consequently, the position continues to evolve in significance,” mentioned Greg Stuart, CEO of MMA International, in a information launch. “Somebody within the c-suite wants to guide evolution as new challenges in companies will at all times come up, along with new applied sciences and particularly altering shopper expectations, usually set by corporations exterior the corporate’s sector, will prevail. In consequence, CDOs are finest positioned and oriented to not solely go searching corners and predict what’s coming subsequent but additionally to behave as antagonists for change.”
Three reinforcing areas of focus for CDOs:
“The oft-repeated adage of ‘the pandemic did extra for digital transformation than any C-suite government’ might ring true in sure respects. Nevertheless it might be overly simplistic to color the position of all CDOs with the identical brush,” mentioned Chris Chesebro, Chief Digital Officer at Wella Firm, within the report. “CDOs, like all C-suite government, should drive clear enterprise outcomes. Understanding the frequent drivers of digital-driven enterprise outcomes may help CDOs in a large number of industries additional speed up the constructive affect of these outcomes.”
Along with the in-depth exploration of the position of the CDO, the stories additionally present new, quantified info about a few of its important elements. Key highlights embrace:
The position of the CDO is carefully tied to enterprise outcomes
Greater than two-thirds (68 p.c) say their important activity is to enhance monetary efficiency, not simply to “disrupt and drive change.” In keeping with that, about 1 out of two see “prime line development” and “margin effectivity” as their important measurable objectives.
Though 61 p.c of CDOs report back to the CEO, overlaps might exist with different C-level roles
In 68 p.c of the organizations, there may be additionally a COO, whereas in 52 p.c, there’s a CTO.
Two colleges of thought exist when it comes to the way forward for the CDO position
The primary one believes that CDOs ought to “construct in direction of a day when there isn’t any want for his or her position.” This cohort of CDOs (33 p.c) are likely to work for corporations which might be extra prone to wrestle to develop and thus have extra short-term objectives and generally extra fragmented capabilities.
The second sees their position as “main the corporate via the ever-evolving cycles of digital disruption.” This cohort (57 p.c) tends to work for bigger corporations that additionally develop extra persistently and have a clearer mandate to drive long-term change, proudly owning an expansive footprint of capabilities and P&L duty.
What sort of CDO do i would like now?
“The upskilling is vital as it’s an end-to-end journey or journey,” mentioned Marc Speichert, EVP and Chief Industrial Officer at 4 Seasons Resorts & Resorts and Chair of the MMA’s CDO Board, within the report. “Excited about upskilling the CDO advertising and marketing perform is as vital as the remainder of the group. It’s a broad scope that requires the best stage of funding. You can’t copy and paste what you do in advertising and marketing to different capabilities as a result of the digital upskilling of the authorized perform or the R&D perform or provide chain will look fairly totally different than upskilling of the advertising and marketing perform. So, it’s vital when it comes to what it requires and when it comes to assets and funding.”
That is the primary of three stories within the collection. The agency might be releasing the CDO Views 2022 white paper later in December, and the State of CDO, Benchmark Survey quantitative report in January 2023.
Obtain the total report right here.
MMA International will current a free webinar collection on the vital and persevering with to evolve position of the Chief Digital Officer. Register right here.
