CIOs to help CEOs to drive digital biz? Wipro finds leadership crisis

Digital-BusinessMark Raskino, vice president and Gartner Fellow, says CIOs must assist CEOs to drive the digital business.

CIOs need to figure out how the CEO thinks about digital business and digital transformation, said the 2017 Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey.

Nearly 50 percent of CEOs have no real metric for a successful digital business. Without key behavior-driving metrics and goals, serious change won’t happen. CIOs need to propose and explain more creative digital business strategy actions and be creative about developing digital ideas.

ALSO READ: Gartner says CIOs need to help scale digital business

Despite unexpected political shifts and economic warnings, 58 percent of CEOs ranked growth as No. 1 as the strategic priority.

CEOs, who are looking for enablers of growth, see digital and information technology as key. CIOs need to assure their CEOs that technology capabilities are data-focused, platform-based, agile, user design-centric, security mindful and well-funded. This will enable them to create a technology base capable of supporting the digital transformation.

31 percent of CEOs rated IT-related priorities as their next biggest challenge. Within the IT category, CEOs had high-level concerns such as improving systems and investing more in technology, but there was a rise in the number of CEOs specifically mentioning digital transformation as a priority.

47 percent of CEOs report pressure from boards to make progress toward digital business. Over half agree that their digital investments have already improved profits.

Gartner says CIO will be responsible for educating and guiding the CEO and expanding horizons. 42 percent CEOs said digital first or digital to the core is now the company digital business posture.

Wipro on digital leadership crisis

There is a leadership crisis among enterprises for completing digital transformation projects, says a study by Wipro Digital.

Half of executives polled said their company is not successfully executing against 50 percent of their digital transformation strategies. The study surveyed 400 senior-level U.S. executives about the digital transformation strategies within their organizations.

91 percent of executives are aligned on what digital transformation means. 4 percent realize half of their digital investment in less than one year. Majority said it has taken their company 2-3 years to see at least half of these investments come to fruition.

“Digital transformation efforts are coming up short on intended ROI, in part because digital transformation is as much a leadership issue as it is a strategy, technology, culture, and talent issue,” said Rajan Kohli, global head, Wipro Digital.

91 percent of executives believe their company is aligned on the definition of digital transformation. 1 in 4 executives note that a key obstacle to success in their digital strategies was a lack of alignment on what digital transformation actually means. 35 percent said lack of clear transformation strategy was as a key barrier to achieving its full digital potential.

Nearly 1 in 5 senior executives admit that they secretly believe that digital transformation projects in their company are a waste of time.

CEOs, CTOs and CIOs are likely to serve as the primary driver for digital transformation strategies, and they are at least twice as likely to do so more than any other senior executive.

New ways of working (39 percent), and feeling overwhelmed by digital complexity (40 percent), were cited as the top two leading obstacles preventing a company from achieving its full digital potential.

Back-end departments such as Operations and IT are the beneficiaries of digital transformation strategies. Far less likely to benefit are departments such as Product Development (15 percent), Marketing (13 percent), and Sales (10 percent).

CMOs are spending more than ever on IT – yet they are the least likely of any senior executive (2 percent) to drive digital transformation strategies. Chief Digital Officers fare little better in driving just 12 percent.

Wipro Digital in May 2017 commissioned an online survey of 400 senior-level executives in the United States with more than 100 employees.

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