Der Chief Digital Officer (CDO): Eine empirische Untersuchung

The Chief Digital Officer, as a new management position, is increasingly established to plan and execute digital transformation. However, this development begs the question whether the Chief Information Officer (CIO) could also be responsible for this digital transformation in organizations. Responsibilities and requirements of the CDO have been identified on the basis of an analysis of job advertisements in German-speaking regions. Additionally, expert interviews with CDOs in Germany and Austria contributed to deeper insights. Results indicate that the CDO focuses on the execution of the digital transformation of a company. Therefore, the CDO is responsible for the definition of the corporate digital strategy, the monitoring of disruptive trends, the establishment of effective organisational structures, the management of the personal network, and the CDO furthermore serves as a cross-functional interface. Moreover, the results show that the requirements a CDO has to meet resemble those of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) (e. g., technical expertise, management know-how, project management expertise, leadership skills, and soft skills). A further finding is that experience in change management is a critical CDO skill to successfully manage digital transformation. Ideally, the CDO is positioned at the c‑level, or at least directly reports to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).