What Does ‘X’ in CXO Signify in the Age of Digital?

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What Does X in CXO Signify
in the Age of Digital?
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What Does X in CXO Signify in the Age
of Digital?
Change is inevitable, you can either evolve with
it or perish with redundancy. Every century or
half, a major revolution swoop on the mankind and
bulldoze it to metamorphose. The history is
replete with examples of those who tried to
resist the change and are consequently,
eliminated out of existence. From man to
machines, physical machines to virtual machines,
hardware to software, and now from physical
reality to digital and virtual reality the
transformation has been humongous, both in terms
of scale and scope. Quality at speed is the core
differentiator of the modern industrial
revolution Industry 4.0. In order to deliver it
to the customers, the digital path is inevitable
for organizations that strive to yield the best
user experience. Today, we are living in an Age
of Customers and Age of Digital, where one
drives the other to excellence. In this era of
digital transformation, customers serve as the
purpose while digital serve as the means to
fulfill that purpose. The scope of Industry 4.0
has rendered the legacy tools, systems, and
processes redundant. It has created a need for a
leader who can visualize beyond what is to what
can be. Technology is the fuel but only a leader
can steer the wagon to the digital destination,
while skillfully avoiding the potholes on the
road. Who should wear the leadership hat? With
every revolution and disruptive change emerges a
leader who has the capability, tactical
expertise, and vision to successfully row the
boat of transformation to the other side. The
likes of Andrew Carnegie, Andrew W. Mellon, Henry
Ford, and
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What Does X in CXO Signify in the Age of
Digital?
John D. Rockefeller were some of the prominent
leaders who drove the previous industrial
revolutions. The C-suite in that time was
relatively lean. Well, there was only the CEO, so
the organizations basically relied on the
competence of a single leader. With the
disruption of technology, new roles have emerged
in the form of Chief Technology Officers, Chief
Information Officers, Chief Information Security
Officers, and Chief Security Officers. When
organizations started to understand the value of
customer-driven strategies, they began hiring
Chief Customer Officers, also known as Chief
Experience Officers. Also Read CIOs in the
drivers seat Driving Digital Transformation in
Banks McKinsey reported that adopting digital
ways can increase revenues by 3.5 and profits up
to 15 more than that of the competition. In
another report by Gartner, 67 of the leaders
acknowledge the criticality of digitization and
agree that they must do it by 2020. Digital
transformation has become a necessity in the
present scenario for organizations to climb the
charts of success. Having so many strategic minds
and decision-makers might be indispensable to
achieve the level of change that digital
transformation demands. But who should actually
lead them all? Will too many chefs end up
spoiling the broth? The demanding role of a
digital leader
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What Does X in CXO Signify in the Age of
Digital?
There is an overlap of responsibilities among a
lot of these emerging roles. In order to ensure
that the overlap promotes collaboration instead
of internal competition and chaos, one strong
leader is required a leader who can
proficiently navigate the organization on the
other side of the journey. A leader who is
technically apt and has the skills to motivate
the people to change and evolve. As Hilda Clune,
CIO of PwC, points out, Digital transformation
is not just about technology or being
technologically enabled. Its about lifting the
digital competency of your people and
accelerating your digital culture. Its about
recruiting and nurturing talent that meets our
future needs, and its about creating the
environment where technology is a part of the
fabric. Its about a vision and strategy where
being digital is a part of the organizations
personality and purpose, not just a part of the
infrastructure. Its an ecosystem. Defining the
X in CXO The X stands for Digital
Transformation, so should the name for this role
be Chief Digital Transformation Officer or a
CDxO? Do we need to create a new role, or are
the existing leaders efficient to drive this
evolutionary change? The need for
technical-aptness brings forth CIOs and CTOs as
the natural choices, but what about the needed
people skills? Irrespective of their present
responsibility, the ideal role of digital
transformation leaders requires them to wear
multiple hats, while leveraging the expertise of
their capable C-suite. Popularly known as
Digital Change Agents, the C-suite in this

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What Does X in CXO Signify in the Age of
Digital?

digital age supports its leader to efficiently
complete the digital transformation journey.
While the leader visualizes, the agents
facilitate. Also Read How to Not Fail at Your
Digital Transformation Efforts Michael Brummer,
Vice President of Experian Data Breach
Resolution, argues, The C-suite is critical to
the success of a companys digital
transformation. As the leaders of their
organizations, they are uniquely positioned to
set forth the strategic vision for embracing new
technologies, streamlining operations, improving
customer experiences, implementing organizational
changes and developing new internal skill
sets. Digital transformation is a not a solo
bike trip. It is a massive train journey with
everyone, from top to bottom level,
onboard. Conclusion More than the nomenclature,
it is essential to have clarity in the vision and
goals. Digital transformation needs to be
all-encompassing. Its not digital transformation
if one unit of an organization is working with
modern digital technologies while the other is
still juggling with the legacy systems. Having
such a disproportionate system will fail the
actual purpose of this revolutionary evolution
Quality at speed. All the processes, all the
systems, and all people must be in tandem with
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What Does X in CXO Signify in the Age of
Digital?

each other, striving to achieve a shared goal,
which is visualized and steered toward by a
capable, digitally-oriented, executive
leader. Cignitis Digital Assurance solutions
address the multifaceted needs of digital
testing. We strive to do this by conducting
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with our Digital QA team to leverage our core
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Blog at https//www.cigniti.com/blog/cxo-cdo-cio
-cto-digital-transformation/
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