Digitally Savvy Leaders Needed To Chart Transformation Course

The process of digital disruption is gathering momentum, but is your organisation up for the challenge? The C-suite has to have the necessary knowledge and be ready to lead.

“Digital Transformation” has been a key business buzz-phrase for several years now, and there’s no sign of that changing. According to a recent Deloitte/MIT report, nine out of 10 managers believe their industries will be disrupted by digital, but just under half feel their organisations are adequately prepared to face the challenge.

Why is that so? With only a third of respondents saying their company’s digital strategy flows from the C-suite, it’s not difficult to see that therein lies much of the problem.

For companies to transform, it has to come from the top, and that means a C-suite, from CEO to CMO, with a good sense of digital direction.

Direction Of Travel

Ten years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for senior business leaders to freely admit: “I don’t really get technology.” Indeed, there are some who would freely proclaim they get their children to operate their smartphones for them—wearing their ignorance as a badge of honour.

Thankfully, this has now changed. Digital is understood to be intrinsic to any modern business, and being a Luddite in any senior leadership position is acutely embarrassing. Yet many in the C-suite still delegate all digital decisions to “expert” subordinates—without making the commitment to gain their own digital direction—and this is a mistake.

Yes, operational tech issues—who provides your internet connection, what operating system your team uses—can clearly be left to specialists. But the intrinsic impact of digital on the strategic direction of any modern business demands the ability to make a more thorough appraisal, particularly for those who are responsible for communicating an organisation’s message to the outside world.

To put it another way, while we all work in offices that we don’t want to fall down, no one would expect a modern leadership team to have an intrinsic understanding of structural engineering. But what about being able to properly read a P&L breakdown, having a grasp of employment law, and knowing the ins and outs of mergers and acquisitions?

These are mission-critical skills for any business leader, and digital is, unquestionably, now in the same bracket. While you might expect a forward-thinking CMO to have a thorough ground of digital issues, it’s not enough for them to be the lone digital evangelist among their boardroom colleagues.

Now, I’m not saying that it’s the duty of every CMO to ensure their colleagues have an intricate understanding of the potential of every social media channel, or the benefits of one content delivery channel over another. But they do need a sound sense of digital direction, as the decisions on how to delegate responsibility to, and enable, your teams—so critical to success in the digital age—must be informed by a proper understanding of the issues at stake across the board.

Self-Assessment

How do you know whether you or your fellow leaders have a good sense of direction in digital?

For a start, look at your interactions with peers. If someone says that email is dying, is the response to agree and speculate about the next direction Slack might take or claim “nonsense, I just got one on my Blackberry 10 minutes ago”? It’s not necessarily about being a so-called Gladwell’s Maven. That level of technological proselytising can be left to the full-time specialists, but any time you’re left uncomfortable talking with a non-specialist should ring alarm bells.

On the flip side of this, those with a proper sense of digital direction will be capable of identifying those who are better informed on the subject than you are, and will be entirely comfortable with leaving them the responsibility to make and enforce decisions on the subject. Digital is a subject around which it is easy to hide ignorance behind jargon, and a confidence in one’s ability to be able to tell when someone is trying to do so—and trust those who clearly are not—is critical.

Ask yourself how much time your company leaders spent immersing themselves in technology over the past year, through what channels they actually educate themselves on the digital issues managers face today (though the fact that you’re here, reading this, is certainly a good sign). And the critical question is when insight is gained—is it shared? And if not, why not?

Consider how well you know the teams/agencies that you have made responsible for actually delivering the digital side of your business—how often, if ever, have they ever actually been visited by the C-suite? Do you meet with them as often as your accountants, lawyers, or corporate communications team?

If any of this makes you feel a little uncomfortable, don’t worry, you’re not alone—even Bill Gates underestimated the impact of the internet. As a CMO and someone who “gets” digital, it’s not difficult to turn things around.

It doesn’t need a white paper or a strategic review. A shared article here, a loaded question there can foster a greater understanding of technology and the general direction of travel it’s taking us in. Then you can all ensure you’re steering your business in the right digital direction.