The chief digital officer : building dynamic capabilities for digital transformation

Abstract

Digital transformation is increasingly high on the strategic agenda of organizations, with many appointing chief digital officers – senior executives with cross-functional digital transformation responsibility – to lead the digital transformation agenda. However, digital transformation is not a single event run as a finite program and organizations require ongoing strategic renewal as technology and business model opportunities are created. Therefore, a chief digital officer must not only deliver on near-term digital transformation priorities, but also enable the organization for ongoing digital transformation in the future. This article describes the findings from 10 semi-structured interviews with chief digital officers, heads of digital, and digital capability leads, exploring the capabilities they are creating to enable their respective organizations’ ongoing digital transformation. It was found that chief digital officers are building the sensing, seizing, and transforming dynamic capabilities of their organizations and this article describes five capabilities that chief digital officers are building to enable ongoing digital transformation in their organizations: (1) scanning, (2) experimentation, (3) digital strategy making, (4) agile delivery, and (5) organizational change.