Digital market research firm IDC predicts that in less than five years, fewer C-Suite officers will have the title CDO appended to their names. This prediction was just one of ten prognostications offered up by IDC in their IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Digital Transformation 2019 Predictions (Doc #US43647118).
IDC believes that companies will sooner or later gravitate into embedding CDO functions into their CEOs even as they pump up efforts to monetize their data.
Rob Daly filed this report in MarketsMedia:
Firms may be minting new chief digital officers to roll out their digital transformation, IDC predicts that the position is transitory and their organizations embedded their responsibilities within the organization eventually.
“This minimizes the need for a corporate digital czar,” said fellow presenter Robert Parker, group vice president at IDC. “However, before an organization makes that progression, it is critical for the CDO to take stock of all of the activities going on across the organization and to leave an integrated strategy.”
It’s not all bad news for CDOs, he noted, “Participating in digital initiatives is a pathway to the corner office as digital transformation is a business strategy and not a technology strategy. Future CEOs will need to have a high level of digital competency. It’s an executive proving ground according to what we see in the research even if the title is not long-term in the grand scheme of things.”
