The C-suite plays a crucial role in establishing a company culture of digital literacy, which is critical for success with digital transformation efforts.
Right now, digital transformation is all about hiring the right IT team and getting the right experts in place to handle the change. However, there’s a missing piece. C-suite could inadvertently get off the path by turning responsibility for technology over to a different department.
Digital transformation success needs a tech-savvy C-suite. It’s time for board executives to pursue digital literacy. As we enter into this digital age, technology familiarity will be a baseline requirement for c-suite eligibility.
In the early days of the crisis, companies faced a choice. They could try to continue on as usual and face almost certain destruction or accelerate all digital transformation. These organizations had to navigate through challenging circumstances and come out on the other side.
Under normal circumstances, digital transformation success is notoriously low. Organizations focus on bringing in expert team members, turning over decision making and technology understanding to them. While it’s wise for c-suite to surround themselves with knowledgeable associates, no one would dream of turning over all expertise like this for any other department.
For example, before a CEO arrives at this level, organizations assume competency in management, leadership, and finance. A CEO who says, “I don’t understand finance projection, but I have the best people working on it!” wouldn’t last long in the board room.
It’s time to think of data literacy in the same way. Just as CEOs do not need to be finance experts but must have a baseline understanding of balance sheets, forecasting, and risk, a baseline digital competence is critical.
Long-held norms for selecting the most qualified CEOs may be slow to change, but now is the time to push those benchmarks. Data and technological literacy isn’t a luxury anymore; this baseline characteristic is now a must-have.
According to a study from the Harvard Business Review, digital skills appeared in all job specs for chief technical officers, but in postings for chief accounting officers or chief human resource officers? Less than a third. Other C-Suite roles mentioned digital skills somewhere around half the time.
As businesses and organizations shift to data-driven initiatives and integrate artificial intelligence into all facets of business, familiarity with these new solutions is critical to success.
AI solutions don’t happen through magic. They require a buy-in and an understanding of their underlying behaviors to launch the type of value businesses need. With a poorly trained C-suite, these initiatives never get off the ground.
The vital roles these positions play:
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