How CIOs Can Set the Cultural Tone of Companies for Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is now a hot topic across many industries, providing new business models and presenting a need for more focused organizational attention and resources in a different way. However, as digital technologies become more essential to business success, there is one thing that frequently identified as a leading barrier: culture. This is why it is important for CIOs to have to lead culture change as they embark on their digital transformation journey.

A recent Gartner report noted that in 50% of cases, CIOs report that culture turns out to be the main barrier, resulting into failure of transformational initiatives. In order to increase their odds for success, CIOs should start with the culture change when they set out on digital transformation. Needless to say, the CIO agenda today is getting bigger and bolder than ever, with a focus on automation, transformation, digitization, innovation, and many more. Here are some recommendations on critical roles for the CIO and how to get started.

Facilitate Executive Alignment on Digital Strategy

CIOs should expose new ideas and think at the executive level. This can be done by understanding the fundamentals of the business, how and why customers buy the products and services, and what alternatives exist in the marketplace. They also have to be versed on what technologies can drive improvements in customer experience, automation, and analytics. By understanding them, CIOs can find new opportunities while better visualizing a path to delivering new culture and results.

Drive Change Across Organization Through Programs

There are drivers in every organization, but they often need guidance on goals and best practices. The first thing to do is find the ones that can take explicit roles in digital transformation programs and. provide them with defined roles and responsibilities. Then, develop a good communication and marketing program to help keep them informed of successes, challenges, and ways that they can get involved.

Look for Key Practices

With leaders and employees coming on board with the digital strategy, the CIO should look at the underlying execution practices such as maturing management, instrumenting digital transformation programs, or workforce collaboration. To establish focus on these priorities, the CIO has to work with their leadership team in and outside of IT, and make sure that practice leaders and participants are aligned with the digital strategy.

Modernizing Platforms That Drive Agility

Selecting and modernizing technologies may be familiar to the CIO and IT organizations but is far from an easy task; there are too many platforms to research and it’s no easier today to evaluate viable long-term platforms and technologies. The good news is, CIOs can tackle this challenge by having innovation programs that drive new technologies, communicating technology strategy, and recruiting an optimal team.

Innovate with Emerging Technologies

Companies and CIOs that are leading their industries will also invest in more emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, and blockchains. Once they acquire the appropriate technologies, CIOs have a critical role to fill by getting the organizational support for innovation experiments, selecting areas to focus on, and prioritizing optimal problems to fix.

To foster a culture of long-term resiliency and workplace innovation, CIOs must be ready to invest in employees’ skills and create an open environment where people feel valued. Also, implementing a digital transformation strategy that engages employees on the frontlines requires CIOs to deploy technologies that are both powerful and allow for operational agility. Visit https://telkomseliot.com and find the right technology to help you set company culture for a successful digital transformation.