Leading a Digital Overhaul? Here’s Some Advice

It is a tall order for any technology executive to be thrust into a role as a digital transformation leader. Executive recruiters and IT experts say those who take such jobs need a special set of business and technology skills to be successful.

Here, in edited excerpts, a group of four recruiters and tech experts list the attributes they say any incoming technology officer should possess when spearheading a digital overhaul.

Tim Crawford, CIO strategic adviser at advisory firm AVOA

Key takeaway: Map data’s role across the business

Any new tech leader that is starting with digital transformation is challenged from the start. Starting with a digital transformation mission puts the focus on technology without first understanding the business context. Many companies have spent millions of dollars on digital transformation with the hope for dramatic business change only to realize the woes of their strategy.

Business transformation is the best starting point. From there, understand how data plays a role in customer engagement and business operations over time. Then map technology against these strategies and understand where technology transformation is required. The change in focus moves from a bottoms-up to top-down focus that creates clear context for change.

Gerry McNamara, senior partner, global managing director, technology officers practice, Korn Ferry

Key takeaway: Communicate in language the C-Suite understands

They need to understand technical requirements, but also be able to put them into language non-technical business people can understand—so that the business people are willing to fund projects and support the effort. They need to be able to get people to buy in.

The really best ones are competent business people. The successful technology leader can think more broadly than just about IT. The best ones communicate well, they’re seen as a peer, and they’re business savvy. They just happen to be an expert in IT.

Katherine Graham Shannon, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles

Key takeaway: Be a talent magnet

Many of our clients are really focused on someone who can prove they’ve actually done something with data. They may not have owned data, but they have figured out a way to use data in a strategic way. Data is almost always in the description of priorities.

And they have to be a talent magnet. No one is going to be able to solve all the issues that come up in a digital transformation. So they have to somehow set themselves apart in the competition for talent. Being a really strong people leader is something that sets a lot of these folks apart.

Sunny Gupta, chief executive of business software maker Apptio and a board member of the Technology Business Management Council, a nonprofit enterprise IT trade group

Key takeaway: Connect tech investments to new lines of business

Chief technology officers have to align with the chief executives, board and other C-suite stakeholders to help architect and deliver technology that is the right fit to support the process. They will be required to lead the change, not just in terms of the technology itself, but also in managing conversations about how the change ultimately affects costs and revenue models.

Too often companies look to technology as a way to cut costs and create efficiency, seeing tech as a cost center that must be controlled. But what more and more organizations are beginning to realize is that tech can actually be a means to create new productivity, products and lines of business.

Write to John McCormick at [email protected] and Angus Loten at [email protected]