As part of executive leadership, the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) effectively engages digital transformation. The CTO is responsible for driving advances, facing key opportunities, and solving the many challenges in an organization’s technology infrastructure. Engaging and getting buy-in from leadership and other internal stakeholders around digital transformation is critical from the initial digital strategy assessment to its implementation. Chief Technology Officers have proven tactics and strategies that facilitate leadership buy-in and foster internal support for internal digital transformation initiatives.
The CTO’s Unique Role in Digital Transformation
Although the responsibilities between the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO) overlap, there are distinct differences between both positions beside a primary professional focus on either hardware or software. As part of their professional activities, CTOs need to stay current on new and changing technology. Given their touchpoints with various other departments around implementation, CTOs have a critical role in driving and monitoring digital transformation initiatives.
Acting as a “bridge-builder” between processes and people within an organization, CTOs can play a critical role in driving digital transformation throughout an enterprise. Part of their professional roles include
- Possessing strong technical knowledge and insight
- Thorough understanding of organizational concerns and strong communication/collaboration with other internal leadership
- Ability to mobilize leadership, staff, and resources around transformative efforts within an organization
- Working with appropriate internal leadership (including CIO) to implement solutions that benefit an organization’s top and bottom lines.
There are some “best practices” that CTOs can leverage in driving enterprise-level digital transformation strategy efforts.
How the CTO Gets Executive Leadership Buy-In
Although part of any executive leadership team, the CTO acts as the primary authority around current technologies and potential adoption into business processes. Establishing appropriate buy-in from other enterprise leadership around digital transformation can be challenging. Chief Technology Officers who have effectively engaged leadership around such initiatives have followed some basic best practices.
- Communicate Your Vision and Strategy Clearly and Articulately – Crafting a digital transformation strategy is a critical part of the process, and engaging fellow executives involves not only expressing strategy details but the overall goals for transformative efforts. Technology implementation issues can be complicated, but providing insight into the direction and steps towards digital transformation can facilitate leadership consensus.
- Establish and Demonstrate ROI for Digital Transformation – Digital transformation efforts require investments of time, resources, and effort necessitating the need to establish a return on that investment. Setting appropriate project benchmarks and metrics provides data-driven insights and feedback for executive leadership to feel engaged and involved in the process.
- Serve as Navigator/Point of Contact for Leadership – Digital transformation efforts require long-term vision and fine attention to detail. Consistent communication and feedback between the CTO and other executive leadership ensure that all are kept current on project status. Creating a “center for digital excellence” within an enterprise can also have a broader impact at every organizational level.
Engaging the Overall Organization
Although executive leadership plays a critical role, CTOs need to manage digital transformation as a “bottom-up” process. Engaging every level of the organization to get buy-in provides maximum efficiency and more thorough adoption of best practices. Current engagement strategies include
- Start Small and Build Out the Process – Digital transformation projects can seem overwhelming, daunting, and needlessly complicated to other enterprise professionals. Integrating a “one-step-at-a-time” approach fosters further investment in the stakes and outcome of the process, focusing on gaining buy-in on an individual and departmental level. As smaller projects prove successful, enterprise workers and staff will have greater ownership of the process fostering further collaboration and coordination with the CTO.
- Build A Culture of Respect – A CTO who develops communication and other “soft skills” can not only engage the organization more effectively but drive project management. Although digital transformation is a highly technical process, a CTO with exceptional professional and personal management skills can facilitate project success. Fostering a culture of respect allows every level of enterprise staff to take an active role in the process.
- Serve As a Focal Point for Digital Success at All Organizational Levels: The CTO effectively engages digital transformation projects by accomplishing two primary goals: digital solution implementation and empowering workers and departments to become digital-savvy. A CTO who serves as a central “navigator” provides a well-needed sense of leadership for digital transformation initiatives.
How A CTO Manages and Maintains the Process
Although the initial engagement of an enterprise around digital strategy and transformation is critical, there are strategies for ensuring the implementation and execution of goals.
- Focus on Internal Stakeholders and External Customers – Although digital transformation efforts may focus on internal stakeholders, the ultimate goal is to benefit customers. Effective digital transformation occurs with a clear, consistent vision of how these benefits impact every activity.
- Consistent Communication With Internal Stakeholders – Maintaining consistent contact and feedback from internal stakeholders provides insight into real-world experiences and qualitative data. Quantitative data provides a necessary insight into results, but qualitative data can inform implementation while allowing for adjustment/realignment of business activities.