The Imperative Role of a CIO
I am young enough to remember that there was once the e-business and dotcom boom, which created the "e-" prefix craze, e-governments were established, and e-commerce increased companies’ stock prices. It was few who predicted that by 2008, the number of “stuff” connected on the Internet will surpass the number of humans online, we became a minority, and now, for every human being on earth, there are at least 7 Smart Connected “things”.
“Smart” is the word replacing the prefix “e-”, e-governments turned “smart governments”, and “IoT” stole the spotlight from “dotcom”. Cloud, Big Data, Mobility, M2M, Analytics and other fancy terminologies are the entourage to follow this new boom. Smart connected “anything”, along side us humans genetate well over 328.77 million terabytes of data are created each day. To put things into perspective, Facebook had over 10 billion photos archived back in 2015 which totals to just about 1.5 petabytes. Governments and analysts are foreseeing that Smart Connected Devices or “IoT” is the answer to the problems arising from the increased urbanization.
But what’s with this powerful new kid on the block - Digital business or “d-business” – the Blue Ocean for private companies and governments to create their competitive advantage? Disruptive trends driven by a powerful end-user demand for digital engagement is so powerful that winning players have embraced, and most of us out there are still in a soul searching mode.
Role models of the highest growing markets in the world
What strikes me the most, is that engines of transformation, traditionally from the private sector, are today led by visionary politicians in countries striving for diversified and sustainable economic growth, social welfare, and ultimately happiness of their people. They are visionary individuals who pre-empted the emergence disruptive technologies almost two decades ago and are now ahead of the curve.
Back in the year 2001, the first e-government in the Middle East was born, securing a worldwide leadership in e-government services. Keeping the happiness of citizens at heart, the evolution continues and today’s UAE Smart drive has got the world’s attention.
The UAE’s government is no different, while strongly believing in innovation as the driving force behind a successful smart government, the new post of Chief Innovation Officer in every government institution with a mission to be a global innovation engine was introduced back in 2015.
What rhymes with Dubai is Emirates, and we can’t be surprised that the “Hello Tomorrow” airline have secured the highest valued airline brand globally, ranked the top digital performance airline in the Middle East, and 4th internationally by the Connected Brand Index of airlines. The index categories were Usefulness, Desirability, Engagement, and Visibility of the airlines’ digital presence.
What CIOs should consider to take a leadership role in driving enterprise transformation to Digital Business?
Neither of the leaders initiating those projects are CIOs of their enterprises, but they have equally visionary CIOs sail that orchestrate change. Transformation to Digital or "Smart" is a corporate wide initiative, enabled by the CIO’s vision, sponsored by the CEO, and integrated within all business units; it is the total customer experience designed from the start to end, and everything in between. The requirements of a digital business are based fundamentally on technologies enabled by a skilled IT department, which would practically make every company an IT enabled company. The IT department is no more a supporting back office entity; it is a strategic business unit that defines cost opportunities and new revenue streams through digitizing the business services and channels, leading the planning and execution of the corporate’s digital strategy alongside the rest of the organization’s leadership. Who else has the skilled team, digital market insight and business understanding to enable a digital business for his organization other than the CIO?
