When it comes to companies undergoing digital transformations, CMOs, not CIOs or CTOs, are primarily manning the helm.
A report by Altimeter Principal Analyst Brian Solis said that CMOs, with 34%, are leading the digital transformation efforts over CIOs/CTOs (19%). The report said that the low number for CIOs/CTOs was understandable because "digital transformation is now about people first and technology second."
Tech-savvy CEOs came in second behind the CMOs with 27%, which the report said would grow over the coming years. In a previous survey by another company, 56% of the CEOs said they were responsible for their companies' digital transformations while the corresponding numbers for CFOs and CIOs were 69% and 63% respectively. (See Survey: 40% of Businesses Aren't Ready for Digital Transformation.)
Rounding out the results, 15% of the chief digital officers (CDOs) were tasked with leading their companies' digital transformations while chief experience officers only represented 5%, which was the same as Altimeter's 2014 study. "CMOs, CEOs, and CIOs will all assume CX (customer experience)-related responsibilities, which makes a chief CX role unnecessary," the report said.
While 55% of those responsible for digital transformations cited "evolving customer behaviors and preferences" as the biggest driver for change, the largest challenge facing executives (71%) was understanding the behavior or impact of new customers, according to the report.
Only half of the respondents (54%) had completely mapped out their customer journey, which indicated that many companies were changing "without true customer-centricity," according to the report.
The top three goals for digital transformations were innovation (81%), modernized IT infrastructure (80%) and improved operational agility (79%).
As for the impact of their digital transformations, 41% of the business leaders in the survey said they saw increases in market share while 37% cited a positive impact on employee morale.
Altimeter surveyed 500 digital transformation strategists and executives for its 2016 State of Digital Transformation report.
— Mike Robuck, Editor, Telco Transformation