The Challenge For Chief Digital Officers: Empower Customers To Know More, Do More, Do Better

The position of Chief Digital Officer at global companies has been around more than five years. There were 2,500 CDOs worldwide at the end of 2016, according to one estimate. There’s even a CDO Club with more than 2,000 members. Not surprisingly, the definition of what a CDO does has grown fuzzy. But in a recent conversation, an executive at a major customer captured the CDO’s job description in a single sentence:

“Sure, we’re always looking for great solutions,” he told me, “but more than that, we’re looking for a partner who can paint a picture of what the future looks like, and work with us to create it.”