Adapt, disrupt,
transform,
disappear
The 2015 chief
digital officer study
. Contacts
Düsseldorf
Paris
Roman Friedrich
Partner, PwC Germany
+49-211-3890-165
roman.friedrich
@strategyand.de.pwc.com
Pierre PeÌladeau
Partner, PwC France
+33-1-44-34-30-74
pierre.peladeau
@strategyand.fr.pwc.com
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Strategy&
. About the authors
Roman Friedrich is a leading practitioner of strategic technology-based
transformation for Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business. He is
a partner with PwC Germany, based in Düsseldorf and Stockholm. He
leads the Strategy& global communications, media, and technology
practice, and specializes in digitization across industries.
Pierre PeÌladeau is a thought leader specializing in digital strategy and
transformation for Strategy&. He is a partner with PwC France, based
in Paris.
He is part of a global digital team and has led digital strategy
and transformation programs at large international companies across a
variety of industries, including aerospace, energy, retail,
telecommunications, and utilities.
Kai Mueller is a specialist in communications, media, and technology
for Strategy& based in Berlin. He is a senior research and knowledge
manager with PwC Germany and heads the European research team
of Strategy&.
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3
. Executive summary
The digital revolution is moving fast and spurring massive disruptions
and transformations in industry after industry. A key sign of its growing
importance is the rise of a new kind of executive: the chief digital
officer, or CDO. Although the number of companies that have already
hired CDOs remains small — just 6 percent globally, according to the
results of our first annual study of the position — their ranks are clearly
growing rapidly. In researching 1,500 of the world’s largest companies
through company filings and records and publicly available information
(see Appendix, page 23), we found that those in consumer-focused
industries, including media, entertainment, food and beverage, and
consumer products, are at the forefront of the trend.
Large companies
are also ahead of the curve, no doubt due to their sheer complexity and
the greater effort involved in carrying out the necessary digital
transformation. And European companies are hiring CDOs at faster
rates than companies elsewhere.
The CDOs themselves, more than 40 percent of whom are members
of the C-suite, come from a variety of backgrounds, but by far the most
common is marketing and sales, followed by technology. This suggests
just how differently the CDOs and the companies that hire them
imagine the role, and how varied the digital needs and pace of
transformation are from one company to another.
Flexibility is perhaps
the single most important success factor for executives new to the
position. CDOs who can adapt to rapidly changing circumstances while
staying tightly aligned with their companies’ business goals will be in
the best position to lead the way to a full digital transformation.
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Strategy&
. New demands, new roles
Already, more than a quarter of the entire population of the world owns
a smartphone. In 2014, global mobile data traffic reached 2.5 exabytes
per month — that’s 2.5 billion gigabytes, a figure that is 30 times larger
than all of the traffic on the Internet back in 2000. With users
connecting, interacting, and consuming data at these rates, it’s no
wonder that companies in almost every industry are hiring CDOs or the
equivalent as fast as they can. The goals: to use online and mobile
interaction in hopes of creating the best possible customer experience,
and to fully transform the employee experience and the way companies
deliver their products and services.
This level of connectivity is inevitably transforming how companies
reach out to consumers, as well as to their business customers, partners,
and suppliers.
Companies in virtually every industry now understand
just how much the digitization revolution is transforming the
competitive landscape, and are preparing to participate in this brave
new world, not just in their interactions with customers, but internally
as well. Indeed, the demands of digitization will ultimately force
companies to transform virtually every aspect of their business.
Hence the rise of the CDO, whose cross-functional task at a growing
number of companies is to do nothing short of transforming companies
for the digital age, overseeing the transition of operations, sales and
marketing, systems, and production — along with the internal
corporate culture and in some cases the company’s products and
services themselves. It is a tall order, especially considering that almost
no one arrives as an experienced CDO; the role has just begun to come
into existence.
This executive has the dual task of developing both an
all-inclusive digital experience for customers and the internal
capabilities needed to support that effort — while simultaneously
managing the considerable investment required. Digital transition will
require as much as 50 percent of capital spending over the next five
years, according to a recent Strategy& study. As opposed to other top
executives — including CMOs, CIOs, and now chief data officers, an
equally recent addition to the C-suite who primarily manage the effort
to collect and analyze big data — we define the CDO as that executive
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.
who has been given both the responsibility and the authority to bring
about the company’s transformation to a fully digital enterprise.
We see the CDO’s role as taking care of digital innovation both
externally, in the companies’ interactions with customers, partners,
and suppliers, and internally, collecting and analyzing data, improving
efficiency through the use of digital technologies, and transforming
organization and culture to enable their companies to compete
successfully in the digital age. Given this wide variety of responsibilities,
and companies’ often varied levels of digital maturity, it’s no surprise
that a defining requirement for the position is flexibility — the ability
to adapt quickly to the situation at hand — and that current CDOs come
from quite diverse backgrounds.
This year, we studied records, filings, and other publicly available
information such as media coverage from the top 1,500 public and
private companies around the world by revenue to understand better
how many companies have appointed CDOs, who they are, and where
they fit in their companies’ hierarchies. We also interviewed four CDOs
from different industries and types of companies, looking more closely
at their missions and goals, and how they carry them out. The data
shows that although few companies have employed a CDO or someone
in an equivalent position — just 6 percent — the numbers are clearly
growing rapidly, and the tasks CDOs are expected to perform have
expanded substantially, even as they vary significantly from company
to company.
Less advanced
companies
would clearly
profit by hiring
one top executive
to develop and
carry out a
coherent digital
strategy.
Because the CDO role is just a few years old, it is not yet possible to
determine whether companies with CDOs perform better in the
marketplace than others.
Indeed, some companies are flourishing
without a single executive overseeing their digital transformation at the
highest level — though most of these companies are already quite far
along in their digital journeys. We believe, however, that less advanced
companies would clearly profit by hiring one top executive to develop
and carry out a coherent digital strategy. The goal of this study is to
better understand which kinds of companies are hiring CDOs, who
these new executives are, and how they approach the tasks in front of
them — and then to look at how, specifically, the CDOs at several very
different companies are taking on the demands of digitization.
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Strategy&
.
Who is hiring CDOs?
The finding that, out of the world’s top 1,500 companies, only 6 percent
had already created the position of CDO or equivalent came as
something of a surprise. It suggests that despite the great deal of
attention paid to digitization in the press and by consumers, a large
percentage of companies haven’t yet seen the need to give a single
executive the power to oversee their digital efforts across the entire
enterprise. Instead, these firms are likely trying to make do by
managing their digital transformations at the function, business unit,
and geographical market level. But it’s also worth noting that of the
86 CDOs we did find, 31 of them were appointed last year, a spike
suggesting that more companies are already assigning a growing level
of importance to the idea of a dedicated digital leader (see Exhibit 1).
Exhibit 1
Surprisingly few companies have a CDO in place
Companies with a CDO or equivalent in place, 2015*
Yes
6%
*Based on a Strategy&
survey of the world’s 1,500
largest companies by
revenue.
94%
No
Strategy&
Source: Financial Times;
OneSource/Avention;
Strategy& analysis
7
.
Further solidifying just how new the CDO role is, none of the industries
we examined had more than a smattering of CDOs. The percentage
of companies with CDOs varies significantly by industry, of course.
Consumer-oriented industries, for instance, led the pack: 13 percent
of communications, media, and entertainment companies have CDOs
— despite our observation that many media and entertainment
companies have already fully embraced the digitization trend —
followed closely by food and beverage, with 11 percent (see Exhibit 2).
And fully 31 percent of travel and tourism companies, within the
category of transport, travel, and tourism, have CDOs — no surprise,
as virtually the entire travel sector has moved online and is highly
dependent on an almost entirely digital customer base.
Exhibit 2
Consumer-oriented companies are more likely to have a CDO in place
Percentage of companies with a CDO by industry, 2015
Industry cluster
No
Yes
Total
Percentage
Communications/media/entertainment
75
11
86
13%
Food/beverages/agriculture
73
9
82
11%
Consumer products/retail/wholesale
133
13
146
9%
Insurance
105
9
114
8%
Transport/travel/tourism
96
8
104
8%
Banking
178
13
191
7%
Pharma/health/chemicals
107
7
114
6%
Technology/electronics
88
3
91
3%
Automotive/engineering/machinery
106
3
109
3%
Utilities/oil/gas
196
5
201
2%
Other
161
4
165
2%
Metals and mining
96
1
97
1%
1,414
86
1,500
6%
Total
8
Source: Financial Times;
OneSource/Avention;
Strategy& analysis
Strategy&
. At the other end of the spectrum, a mere 3 percent of technology and
electronics companies had CDOs in place. This may seem incongruous at
first, given these companies’ determination to keep up with technological
advancements, but it should not indicate that management’s commitment
to digital transformations is low. More likely, the functions and
responsibilities that often fall under the remit of a CDO are already
distributed among different areas within the C-suite management at these
firms, and are already deeply entrenched in all aspects of the company’s
culture. Moreover, many of these companies deal primarily with other
business customers, not with consumers directly, and business-tobusiness firms have typically lagged in their efforts to digitize.
Meanwhile, just 1 percent of metals and mining companies have a CDO,
and 3 percent of automotive, engineering, and machinery companies
do.
Clearly, B2B companies have less external motivation to move
quickly on digitization than do B2C firms. Yet this too will certainly
change as new technologies such as the Internet of Things and
enterprise-oriented apps make greater inroads into their operations
and how B2B firms connect with partners and suppliers.
The metals and mining industry is a case in point. So far, this highly
“analog” industry appears to see few opportunities to leverage digital
technologies.
But first movers will likely figure out the value of greater
digital interaction with both equipment suppliers and downstream
customers, and how they can generate greater transparency into order
status, pricing, and quality while benefiting from the increase in data
and analytics regarding internal operations, leading to further cost
savings and optimized project time lines.
Some companies
may already be
past the point
where they see
the need for a
single executive
to fill the
position of CDO.
This considerable variation among industries can be explained partly
by the extent to which a given industry is feeling the impact of the
digital revolution. Although some are already over the “hump” in terms
of digitization, others are only just beginning to feel its effects (see
Exhibit 3, next page). Moreover, individual companies vary considerably
in their approach to the position.
Indeed, some may already be past the
point where they see the need for a single executive to fill the position.
Larger companies also tend to be ahead of the curve in appointing
CDOs. The proportion of companies with more than 10,000 employees
that have appointed CDOs hovers between 5 and 9 percent, but falls
between 1 and 3 percent for companies with fewer employees (see
Exhibit 4, page 11). Digitization is changing the way all companies,
large and small, run their businesses.
Given their enormous
complexity, however, and the sheer number of employees involved,
larger companies face a much more difficult digital transformation
effort, which is why it’s likely that their efforts across all functions
and business units require an executive focused on the process.
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9
. Exhibit 3
The need for a CDO during each phase of the digital revolution
Level of
digitization
Time
Discovery
Construction
Industrialization
Transformation
Company has begun
to use digital
applications but
with no coordination
or scale.
Company sets a vision
for digital
transformation, deï¬nes
initiatives, structures a
program, sets
standards.
Company transforms IT
function, scales its data
analytics, runs digital
applications for most
functions.
Digital is the norm, all
functions and supply
chains are digital.
Need for a CDO within
an industry
Change within an industry
sector due to digital
Source: Strategy& analysis
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Strategy&
. Exhibit 4
Larger companies are more likely to have a CDO
Percentage of companies with CDO by employee size categories*
7%
200,000+
9%
100,000–199,999
50,000–99,999
7%
25,000–49,999
7%
5%
10,000–24,999
5,000–9,999
3%
1,000–4,999
3%
0–999
Strategy&
2%
*Based on a Strategy&
survey of the world’s 1,500
largest companies by
revenue.
Source: Financial Times;
OneSource/Avention;
Strategy& analysis
11
. Moreover, major digital transformations (and the senior-level staff
assigned to the cause) cost money, and may be beyond the means of
many smaller firms, whose management teams are typically more
focused on core tasks like finance and operations while their digital
innovation efforts are often divided among executives at various units
and functions.
And although fully 13 percent of companies based in Europe have
already appointed CDOs, just 7 percent of North American companies
have done so, and 5 percent or less in Asia, the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA), and Latin America (see Exhibit 5, next page). Yet it
would be a mistake to assume that European companies are ahead of
the curve in this regard. Rather, it is more likely a function of the fact
that North American companies, like many electronics and media
companies, feel that they “have it covered” elsewhere, with numerous
high-level executives, such as CMOs, already in place to move the digital
agenda along.
Indeed, it may very well be that many of the companies now appointing
CDOs are actually less mature in their digital development, and feel that
it’s important to have a single executive who can provide a stronger,
faster solution to their digital needs. Meanwhile, most of the companies
we looked at in the Middle East are engaged to varying degrees in the
oil and gas industry, a largely B2B business where very few companies
anywhere have felt the need to appoint a CDO thus far.
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.
Exhibit 5
Companies in Europe are more likely to have a CDO than those headquartered elsewhere
Percentage of companies with CDO by region
Asia-Paciï¬c
Latin America
5%
North America
3%
13%
7%
Europe
2%
MENA
Strategy&
Source: Financial Times;
OneSource/Avention;
Strategy& analysis
13
. CDO demographics
As noted, the CDO is a relatively new position at most companies, with
almost 80 percent having been appointed since 2012. Yet its rise
suggests that many companies are taking very different, and much more
integrated, approaches to how they view the technologies they use to
manage internal operations and the customer experience. In the past,
the traditional CIOs and CTOs were focused primarily on their
companies’ IT, managing employee desktops and enterprise-wide ERP
and CRM systems. Then, as enterprise technology began to spread to
other areas of the corporation, other positions arose, such as the CMO,
who often worked closely with the CIO to incorporate new marketing
technology into their repertoire.
The CDO role, however, has arisen under very different circumstances,
based as it is on the need to steer the company through an era of
massive disruption in every aspect of its external relationships and
internal operations.
Yet because companies vary so considerably in
their levels of digital maturity, and because the demands of digitization
depend so largely on the nature of the industry they do business in, it is
virtually impossible to generalize about the CDOs’ mission, or even
their role within the organization.
Considered from the point of view of what companies need to do to
ready themselves for the digital future, it is possible to better
understand the task that lies ahead of the new CDO — and just how
daunting it often is. A full digital transformation should consist of six
elements, all of which are critical to its successful completion, and the
CDO, at least in theory, should be responsible for all of them (see Exhibit
6, next page). He or she should be responsible for both the customerfacing elements of the transformation, including the development of
new products and services, and relevant customer experiences, enabled
by digitization, as well as the operational changes required to make
them a reality.
The technical infrastructure and data collection and analysis, too,
should be under the purview of the CDO.
So should issues surrounding
how the company ought to be reorganized to carry out its digital
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. Exhibit 6
To maintain coherence, CDOs must be responsible for all aspects of the digital transformation
Digital transformation framework
Products and
new businesses
Customer
relationship
Operations
Technical infrastructure and data
Organization and governance
Culture and change management
Source: Strategy& analysis
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15
. mission, and the governance mechanisms required to ensure that
critical and often hotly debated functions such as who should oversee
the development of new digital services and data analytics are carried
out effectively. Finally, the CDO must be an agent of cultural change,
championing the digital transformation throughout the company.
Indeed, changing how people work — especially non-digital natives
— and the corporate culture that underpins their work behavior is a
critical element of the CDO’s job. Pharmaceutical giant Bayer, for
instance, has been operating with the kind of data that is now the
foundation for digitization for more than a century. But as Jessica
Federer, head of digital development at Bayer, notes, in digital
transformations, “the data piece is actually the easiest.
Data is data. It’s
the people piece that’s the challenge. So we focus first on the people in
the organization, and how we connect across synergies, across silos,
over platforms and data.”
In order to achieve that level of connectivity, Federer began by creating
a digital council consisting of the CIOs and CMOs of the human and
animal sciences divisions, whose task it was to look at potential
synergies.
Below that level are the digital core teams and then a huge
digital network, which Federer just happened to bestow with the
acronym NERDs, or Network for Enterprise Readiness and Digital.
“They’re the ones bringing together digital marketing with digital
product supply with digital R&D,” says Federer. “We used to do this in
silos, but now we do it by sharing information.”
For similar reasons, three years ago Patrick Hoffstetter, CDO at auto
manufacturer Renault, created what it calls the Digital Factory, the
company’s centralized digital transformation organization. His goals
were twofold.
First, with many people in the company and as many as
65 different outside agencies already working on digital, the overall
digital strategy needed to be clarified. So, second, the plan was to use
the Digital Factory as the basis for regrouping all of the resources and
all of the experts from different functions and markets needed to carry
out the strategy.
The CDO must
be an agent of
cultural change,
championing
the digital
transformation
throughout the
company.
The impetus for the Digital Factory lay in part in the near-constant
organizational debate between local and global priorities. “Nobody’s
questioning that global partnership, global platforms, global tools,
global dashboards, global KPIs, and so on should be created and
managed centrally,” he says.
“But it’s more unclear when it comes to
content, data management, digital marketing, and the like.” Thus, the
Factory’s organizational role is to manage the interface between the
local and the global.
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Strategy&
. That, it turns out, includes providing support for smoothing the
transition to what he calls “connected” employees — how they work
today, their very different expectations, the tools they need to thrive.
In short, going digital isn’t simply a matter of putting up an effective
e-commerce website or engaging in social media. It requires a
thoroughgoing rethink of how the entire company goes to market.
Thus, CDOs must take a much more cross-functional approach,
spanning traditional IT and other, newer technologies, as well as
marketing, sales, and other functions — all while they maintain
intimate connections to their company’s business goals. As a result,
the CDOs at the companies we studied come from a wide range of
backgrounds — marketing, sales, technology, consulting, and academia.
Of the CDOs we studied, more than a third have marketing
backgrounds, and another 17 percent have backgrounds in sales and
distribution, whereas just 14 percent have backgrounds in technology
(see Exhibit 7).
Exhibit 7
Marketing and sales experience dominates the backgrounds of current CDOs
Number of CDOs by background/former experience
Academic
Technology
14%
Strategy and
business development
Sales and
distribution channels
2%
Consulting
13%
2%
7%
17%
34%
10%
Other
Strategy&
Customer service
Marketing
Source: Financial Times;
OneSource/Avention;
Strategy& analysis
17
. The abundance of marketing-oriented CDOs suggests that companies
are still taking an essentially customer-centric slant in filling the CDO
position. “One reason why most operations in digital strategy and
transformation are focused on sales and marketing is that these
functions have a direct, quite short-term impact on the business,”
Renault’s Hoffstetter says. “Whereas when it comes to the evolution of
internal processes, internal social networks, acceleration of
collaborative tools, internal training, it’s much harder to show any
payback, and it takes a lot longer.”
Pursuing the transformation of the consumer-facing operations is a
perfectly reasonable way to begin to go digital, but companies must
understand that, although necessary, it isn’t sufficient. And it won’t
allow companies to become fully coherent digital organizations.
That,
as noted, requires the digital transformation of the entire business, and
the executive who leads the effort must be able to coordinate its every
aspect. So it doesn’t really matter whether the CDO comes from
marketing or IT or operations, as long as he or she has the capacity to
take the cross-functional approach necessary to lead the charge.
Striving for coherence is also why so many CDOs are members of their
companies’ C-suites — above 40 percent, according to our survey,
although some companies still prefer to appoint CDOs to individual
functions or business units (see Exhibit 8, next page). This is particularly
true of consumer-oriented companies, which have come to learn early
just how important digitization has become to their ability to compete
by providing customers with the best possible experience in all their
interactions with the company.
The CDO
must have
the capacity to
take the crossfunctional
approach
necessary to
lead the charge.
But it is also true of companies that are relatively early in their
digitization efforts, and need the extra push forward that a single CDO
can provide.
Virtually every CDO interviewed for this study emphasized
the importance of working closely with every function of the business to
ensure that their strategies and decisions are thoroughly grounded in
their company’s overall business strategy and goals. Being part of top
management gives them that critical perspective, but they must also be
given the power and support they need; otherwise, they may find
themselves with a “seat at the table” but without the strategic and
operational input that many CIOs have long been denied.
Corinne Avelines, who joined AkzoNobel’s decorative paints division as
CDO in July 2014, points to this cross-functional approach as critical:
“Commitment at the top management level to innovation and
digitization has made my job considerably easier,” she says. “Senior
support is key to ensuring commitment to digital at the company,
especially one of this size.”
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Strategy&
.
Exhibit 8
CDOs at the C-suite level make up the largest proportion of all CDOs
CDOs by organizational structure level
Other
27%
42%
Vice president
level
C-suite level
15%
16%
Director level
Source: Financial Times;
OneSource/Avention;
Strategy& analysis
Companies that try to carry out their digital transformation without a
CDO who has the necessary authority run the risk of creating a lack of
coherence, especially given the importance of matching the new digital
technologies involved in the transformation to the company’s go-tomarket strategy.
Indeed, given all the new digital technologies available in the pursuit of
digitization — from social media to big data to the Internet of Things
— many new CDOs will likely find it tempting to put the technological
cart before the business horse. This is a mistake. The overall strategy
must always drive decisions about how and what to digitize, especially
at companies where the digitization efforts are less mature.
Noting the many distractions that CDOs are likely to face, AkzoNobel’s
Avelines strongly concurs with this view. “Don’t take on every battle,
because there are just too many — it’s useless,” she says.
“Don’t get too
preoccupied with getting everything perfect — that’s just impossible.
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19
. Gaining a competitive advantage in a fast-digitizing age is a challenge,
so CDOs must understand their company’s current position and future
strategy, what will make an impact on providing value to the customer,
and focus on that. Worry about the other things later.”
CDOs must do more than simply align themselves with their companies’
business goals. The impact of digitization is all-encompassing, and as
such has the power to transform every aspect of the business —
including those business goals themselves, whether that means
pursuing a new business model, reimagining the customer experience,
boosting digital innovation, or increasing operational efficiency. So it is
incumbent on CDOs to participate actively in the creation of business
strategy — and lead the process when necessary.
Chris Curtin, who has been the CDO at Visa for more than two years,
believes strongly in this approach.
“I not only think that the best CDOs
are reflective of the business,” he says. “I think that in many respects
they are the business.” To that end, he believes that CDOs should “forget
about digital. Forget about new media.
Forget about anything else.
Whether it’s McDonald’s, whether it’s Nike, at the end of the day, the
goal is to sell more hamburgers or shoes or sports apparel. The business
objective has to permeate the thinking and the strategies and the goto-market approach of the CDO and his and her team. Never make the
means the end.
A million followers on Twitter is just a means. The end
is the business goal.”
It is incumbent
on CDOs to
participate
actively in the
creation of
business strategy
— and lead the
process when
necessary.
Still, there will likely be tension between companies’ business goals and
the pursuit of their digital goals. Renault’s Hoffstetter sees this as a
critical challenge for CDOs.
“Many companies struggle to maintain a
balance between focusing on short-term business results and a longerterm effort at digital transformation, where it’s much more difficult to
demonstrate a clear return on investment,” he says. “It’s really hard for
top management at a lot of big companies to be able to manage this kind
of dual strategy.” Performing this balancing act will require a strong
CDO who can push the digital effort forward while maintaining focus
on business goals and capturing short-term business wins that will
demonstrate the value of the effort to the business.
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Strategy&
. A rogue on the team
Our findings show that the qualities, skills, and job descriptions of
today’s CDO are diverse and fluid, and that companies are defining this
key role in a wide variety of ways. Given the very recent emergence of
the position and the many different kinds of companies that now need
to “up their digital game,” it makes sense that the entrepreneurial
executives taking on the job are as unique as the circumstances they
find themselves in.
That’s a good thing. Most CDOs are still trying to figure out how best to
enable the digital agenda of their companies, given the industry they’re
in, and the specific way their organizations should react to current and
future digital trends and indeed to the very appearance of CDOs
themselves.
One thing is certain, however: The CDO role is by definition
transformational. The CDO’s task is to bring changes to companies,
and their cultures, which many are likely to resist, one way or another.
Doing so will require the willingness, and the strength of mind, to be a
disruptive force when necessary.
“Make sure you become part of the
team, understand and work within the culture, and apply the rules,”
says Hoffstetter. “But at the same time you need to maintain your
energy and your external views and your willingness to disagree with
others regarding digital strategy. I like to quote a counterpart at another
large company who told me that to some degree, ‘CDOs need to be
hooligans.’ You need to find the right balance.”
Ultimately, the goal of every CDO is to ingrain the digital agenda so
deeply and efficiently that it will become a way of life for everyone and
every function in the organization, and a priority for every member of
its C-suite.
That’s the vision Bayer’s Federer has for her company. She is
looking forward to a time when Bayer’s digitization strategy, and the
change management effort it requires, will get the company to a point
where, she says, “we can stop talking about digital because it’s just how
we work, where IT and technology is so integrated into how we work
and into what we do that we won’t need to talk about it separately.”
Strategy&
21
. Conclusion
The rise of digitization is bringing about a singular shift in how
companies operate and the technologies they use to interact with
customers, partners, and suppliers. Until recently, they struggled to take
a truly integrated, synergistic approach to the relationship between
technology and the business. Now, however, all kinds of technologies,
from big data to social networking to advanced mobility, are coming
together and driving the need for every company to prepare for the
digital future. Says Bayer’s Federer: “Digitization has only become an
option recently.
And now it’s not an option anymore. It’s an imperative.
We all have to do it.”
Yet CDOs have a difficult road in front of them. Often, they must
negotiate entrenched company cultures, fight for ongoing support from
top management, and balance the creation of new digital strategies
with the inevitable operational issues involved in a full digital
transformation, even as short-term financial goals consume the
activities of many employees.
Success will require that CDOs on this new frontier be adaptable, focus
on business goals and the organizational and cultural changes needed,
and remember that once digitization is firmly entrenched in their
companies’ everyday operations, they will have accomplished their
mission.
What’s in store for them afterward is as flexible and undefined
as the roles they occupy today.
22
Strategy&
. Appendix: The global
CDO study methodology
Strategy& researchers determined the global top 1,500 public and private
companies by incorporating the Financial Times Global Top 500 companies
by market cap and the top private and public companies based on revenues
from OneSource/Avention. Market cap and revenue data was from 2013 and
2014. The researchers then studied the companies through corporate filings
and records as well as other publicly available information, such as media
coverage.
The study included 25 industries in Asia-Pacific, Europe, MENA, and North
and Latin America.
In addition, Strategy& researchers conducted in-depth interviews
by telephone in May and June 2015 with the following CDOs: Corinne
Avelines, CDO at AkzoNobel’s paints division; Chris Curtin, CDO at
Visa; Jessica Federer, head of digital development at Bayer; and Patrick
Hoffstetter, CDO at Renault.
Strategy&
23
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