CDO backlash and digital strategy

published 20 February 2014

The digital era is characterised above all else by noise.

All three are highly governed sectors. And it is this focus on governance rather than the more sexy side of digital, such as social and collaboration that marks out the business requirement for a CDO. Too many people still automatically associate the creation of a digital strategy with high-profile platforms, like Facebook.

But the digital era is characterised above all else by noise. IT executives face demands from users for many different devices, apps, platforms and services. To make the most of digital technology, the processes around data use must be established and clear. Great innovation, in short, requires better governance.

It is here that the CIO can be the CDO's best friend, and vice versa. IT leaders have experience of how to use various technology resources in new combinations to help change the business for the better. And it is this technical reinterpretation that is likely to a marker of success in the digital age.

Dr Mark Samuels, editor at advisory organisation CIO Connect.

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Mark Samuels is a freelance writer specializing in business and technology. For the past two decades, he has produced extensive work on subjects such as the adoption of technology by C-suite executives.

At ITPro, Mark has provided long-form content on C-suite strategy, particularly relating to chief information officers (CIOs), as well as digital transformation case studies, and explainers on cloud computing architecture.

Mark has written for publications including Computing, The Guardian, ZDNet, TechRepublic, Times Higher Education, and CIONET.

Before his career in journalism, Mark achieved a BA in geography and MSc in World Space Economy at the University of Birmingham, as well as a PhD in economic geography at the University of Sheffield.

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