Looking at the outside world first, digital transformation not only impacts on the internal optimisation of the enterprise, it also has a massive impact on how the enterprise interacts with partners and customers. In fact, it has been designed to do so. Therefore, the CDO must make sure early on that there is a credible market communication plan, and that these communication efforts are synchronised, consistent over time and supportive of the targets of the digital programme.

Intense interaction with existing and new business partners is required so that they have enough time to adapt their habits and enter into a new form of interaction with the enterprise as it creates a digital ecosystem. Customers must be ready to consume digitalised products in the future. Some will be involved in shaping these very products, but the vast majority must be prepared for the new products and services. In many cases, this requires a great deal of informative communication and image campaigns. 

It is the ultimate aim that customers perceive the enterprise to be a digital innovator and accept the new generation of products. 

In short, the CDO must inspire the market.

Together with the CEO and other fellow executives, the CDO stands for the new direction the enterprise is taking, projecting digital competence to the marketplace. Special attention needs to be given to aligning the new external digital brand of the enterprise with the novel digital set-up and culture of the internal organisation. Misalignment in this respect endangers the authenticity of the digital transformation and hence its very success.

The CDO then has many tasks to prepare the enterprise for the transformation ahead. From a practical viewpoint, the necessary change and investment capacities of the enterprise need to be directed towards digitalisation. The speed of transformation must match the organisation’s capacity for change, both from the existing culture’s perspective, and also from the perspective of the sheer financial means of the organisation. 

Digitalisation will take the enterprise to its limits, and if it does not, the approach has not been bold enough.

The famous envelope must be pushed. 

Project portfolio management is a very powerful tool as it allows direct influence on the allocation of the enterprise’s resources. Early on, the CDO must take over responsibility for project portfolio management and shift the enterprise’s focus of change towards the desired digital target state, ensuring that this focus remains throughout the multi-year transformation phase ahead.

Next, the CDO is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the enterprise adopts the new digital business model. This responsibility is all-encompassing. It not only embraces changes to the structure of value creation towards digital domains, but also the necessary organisational changes, process improvements and the adoption of new technology. The comprehensiveness of this change and the need to adequately address all dimensions of the business model are subsumed under the notion of enterprise architecture. The enterprise architecture approach ensures the completeness and hence consistency of the approach to the transformation.

The CDO must plan for and prepare the changes to the technology architecture, the digitalisation of customer-facing, partner-facing and internal processes, as well as development of the human organisation, as digital might indeed require new organisational structures. The units and divisions governing these areas of the enterprise’s operating model must be prepared for the change ahead.

However, before launching these more technical and functional aspects of the digital transformation, modifying the business model by changing technology, processes and organisation, the CDO must begin by managing such comprehensive change. Digitalisation will have an impact on the personal situation of many stakeholders, and anxiety and resistance are typical and understandable reactions.

The CDO will therefore spend a significant part of his or her time engaged in change management, especially in the early stages of the initiative. Addressing change must be done in a proactive way. This means that the CDO should not wait for resistance in the first place, but rather communicate actively and carve out a new digital spirit as fast as possible. The CDO must be visible, even let themselves be challenged, but hold the course towards the desired target, sometimes through very tough times.

Stamina will be a prerequisite. It is better to take the bull – as in resistance to change – by the horns right from the outset.

Digital enterprises give the empowerment of customers and employees crucial importance. The digital transformation aims for a target state in which both customers and employees have more effective degrees of freedom and, from the outset, a decisive impact on the way the enterprise operates. Hence, specific attention needs to be given to how to include direct customer and partner feedback, ensure their involvement and involve employees from all facets of the enterprise. It is likely that new methods of engagement will be needed compared to those used in the business historically. Again, the internal and external approaches to empowerment must match in order to engender a single consistent perception of the company – a homogeneous brand. It is the CDO’s job to ensure that the digital initiative genuinely follows the direction that is being heralded. This will massively increase the likelihood that the customer base accepts the enterprise’s digital activities, and that its partners support its digital transformation and transition to a digital ecosystem. Such an inclusive approach is also at the core of the digital megatrend of connecting digital enterprises naturally into digital ecosystems.