CIO’s: Drivers or Followers of Digital Transformation?

Abstract

It is increasingly clear that Digital Transformation acts as an enabler of structural innovation of company processes and products, services and go-to-market models and that it does so through the appropriate use of new digital technologies. In this sense it appears as a contextual transformation of a company’s business strategies and technology infrastructure. CIOs are correspondingly required to transform their own role by offering themselves as leaders of Digital Transformation. However, if Digital Transformation is a great systemic project, consisting of a long process guided by a master plan, what factors should direct it if it is to succeed? And what tasks should the CIO perform to bring this process to a successful conclusion? In this context, CIOs find themselves at a crossroads requiring them to redefine their role in the immediate and medium term perspective. The results of a survey conducted in the first half of 2016 on a panel of Italian CIOs (CIO Survey 2016) provide us with an answer to these questions. Specifically, the Survey reveals 10 lessons learned that in the experience of the CIOs interviewed are key requirements for the successful completion of a Digital Transformation project.