The emergence of the CDO and the digital competency

The later part of the last decade (2015 to 2019) saw several commercial and public sector organizations start a digital competency. This often resided outside the traditional Information Technology (IT) group and consisted of people with cross-functional knowledge. In the following sections, we will look at the roles and charters of this new group.

The rise of the CDO

According to a study by Deloitte, large companies typically spend between 3% and 5% of their total revenue on IT (Figure 2.12):

Figure 2.12 – IT budget as percentage of revenue

This often corresponds to the budget of the CIO. To simplify the math, let's say for every $100 of the company's revenue, $5 is spent on IT. Now, if the CIO makes the IT organization 20% more efficient and cuts the expenses by the same amount, then the top line of the company does not change but the bottom line or the profitability improves...