Are You A Digital Leader?

One popular conversation topic amongst IT managers is, “What will be the future of the CIO?” Depending on whom you ask, the opinions range from downright pessimistic (“CIOs will be displaced by the CMO, CDO, CKO, etc.”) to wildly optimistic (“CIOs will be the next CEOs”). The reality, as always, lies between the two extremes.

There is little doubt that a nexus of technology powered forces is disrupting economic models, business strategies and consumer behavior. In just five years, we have seen a significant change in the working of many industries—from retailing to travel, banking to public services. New types of companies and services have started—and are flourishing. Organizations have been compelled to re-think the way they deliver services and products. Agility, flexibility and innovation have become the new mantras for survival and success.  Naturally, this leads optimists to believe that CIOs will eventually run everything.

For enterprise IT leaders, the challenge of operating in this changing environment is two-pronged. One hand they have to continue delivering efficient IT services with high levels of excellence and reliability; and at the same time, they have to be ready to creatively use emerging tools and techniques to enable the organization take advantage of emerging opportunities.

To effectively manage these conflicting requirements, enterprise IT leaders will need to change their current management style—from controlling to inspirational. That’s because the new generation digital leaders will exploit solutions that are cloud-based, will design for mobile environments, ensure greater contextualization of apps and services, and will leverage unstructured data for insights. They will employ data-led experimentation methods, and perform continuous iteration and improvement of solutions. The velocity of change in the internal and external environment will be quick and unrelenting.

The good news is that the top management in many organizations is now cognizant of the digital opportunity—and expects senior IT managers to lead from the front. This is a great opportunity to show that you can be a digital leader—and a pragmatic technology manager. Are you ready for this challenge? Write in, and let us know.

Runners Point