The debate whether major organisations need Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) and whether CIOs could and should take-up CDOs’ responsibilities is still being hotly discussed in 2018.
In April 2017, Caisha Sheikh, former CIO head-hunter within Crimson’s IT recruitment agency, penned an article entitled ‘Should CIOs apply for CDO roles?’ which determined the two roles had “vastly different” responsibilities, and that CIOs, CDOs, and CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) should collaborate to achieve corporate objectives.
However, Harvey Nash’s 2018 CIO Survey, which was produced in collaboration with KPMG and interviewed 3,958 CIOs from across the globe, has revealed that 51% of organisations do not currently have a CDO. What’s more, it revealed that only 11% had a dedicated CDO, with 24% having the CIO fulfilling this role, and with 14% having another job title owning CDO responsibilities.
What do these figures say about whether organisations actually need CDOs? Well, if we look at those figures from another perspective, half of all organisations identify as having a dedicated or acting CDO. Therefore, it has been recognised that someone is required to drive the value of digital in the business, across technology and operations.