CIO OPINION
CIO opinion
“
WHEN LEADERS
PAINT THE DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION VISON,
AN INCREASED NUMBER
OF EMPLOYEES WILL COME
ON BOARD.
/////////////////
Neil Louw, Group CIO, Dimension Data
No choice; no Plan B
The potential of the digital era
outstrips every preceding age
tenfold but there’s no one-size-
fits-all solution to transform
and thrive as a digital business.
Organisations need to create a
balance between streamlining
existing processes and finding
new ways of doing business
such as adding systems that
drive efficiencies both internally
and for customers, while
making sure they’re taking
their employees along with
them on the journey. Dimension
Data’s Group CIO, Neil Louw,
shares his experience with
his peers in organisations
embarking on their own digital
transformations.
www.intelligentcio.com
F
or established businesses wanting to remain relevant and competitive
in the next five years, digital transformation isn’t a choice: it’s a must
and there’s no Plan B. Leaders must adopt a mindset of ‘we must
transform and it’s merely the details that we need to figure out.’
Leaders paint the vision – CIOs deliver the results
To successfully drive transformation, CIOs need clout and one of the
first critical steps is to secure executive ownership and support for your
transformation initiative.
Equally as important is an understanding that your business will only
transform successfully if your employees transform too. Your employees
need to take part alongside you on the journey. It’s up to the company
leadership to share the transformation vision across the entire business
so that employees can easily understand how things will work differently
in their current day jobs and how it will benefit them and their clients.
When leaders paint the digital transformation vison, an increased
number of employees will come on board. People will become sceptical
if progress isn’t backed up by evidence of delivery, so it’s up to the CIO
to demonstrate what’s being achieved on a regular basis.
Not just a new set of partners, but a new approach
to partnering
Digital transformation is ushering in new and different ways of working
with long-standing partners to create and align new commercial and
INTELLIGENTCIO
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