In their article Kane, Palmer, Phillips and Kiron, (2015) discuss their research on how companies react to digital changes. While starting off with an example of a successful ad campaign using technological advances (McDonald’s), they later go into detail as to why many companies do not properly react to new technology and that this is not just about the technologies themselves. Rather it is about ensuring your whole company is ready to use and thrive on these new technologies like McDonald’s. The authors looked at a survey among companies and their employees, trying to find out if companies using different technologies behaved differently. An important finding here is that the management team need to be tech savvy. If the CEO for example is not skilled enough to take advantage of new digital technologies it is likely that the company will not do so at all.
Kane et al., (2015) have a blunt solution for companies: just hire a more tech savvy CEO. Luckily CEOs that are currently less involved technologically do not necessarily have to fear for their jobs. Haggerty, (2012) proposes ways to become more involved with technology, a way for CEOs to change themselves. So how does a manager become tech savvy. Besides taking the BIM master there are of course other things to look at.
The important point for managers according to Haggerty, (2012) is to start involving yourself more in IT. The author lists multiple benefits of this approach however this boils down to one crucial element: become more involved in the technology in your company and industry. You do not necessarily need to understand it all, however talking to the employees who do is crucial to making decisions that also make sense from a technological standpoint. If not the companies’ strategy will falter technologically speaking and a more tech savvy manager will likely be lined up as a replacement.
Managers that currently are not tech savvy should keep this in mind, it is not too late to start working on becoming more technologically involved. The future of your company and your job may depend on it.
Reference list:
Haggerty, N. (2012). On becoming an IT savvy CEO. Retrieved from: https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/on-becoming-an-it-savvy-ceo/
Kane, G. C., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., and Kiron, D. (2015). Is Your Business Ready for a Digital Future? MIT Sloan Management Review, 56(4), 37
Nice blog! However, don’t you think that it has something to do with personality or preferences? I certainly agree that a CEO should be involved in technological activities or anything, but I think it is not only about the skills. I think it’s more important that you have a personality that likes change, is creative, and likes to make things more digital/technological/automative etcetera. At least there should be a balance!
Thank you. Yeah I agree, CEOs also benefit from the other things you listed. Though I think CEOs that are uncapable of changing are going to fail sooner or later no matter what, companies constantly need to evolve even when not looking at technology. But CEOs that do have these personality traits/preferences of liking change without the skills/staff to back it up will also have a tough time in my opinion. A proper balance of personality and skills would be best
Hi Daniel, nice solid blog post. I certainly agree that a tech savvy CEO is beneficial for a company transforming the business model to a digital one. Nowadays you have waves of digital change that provide new opportunities. I think the technical skills of a CEO are not the only focus. An open minded CEO which who is willing to exploire the new digital landscape and form a aligned business and technical/digital strategy is more important. In order doing so it can be ideal to hire a CDO (Chief Digital Officer), who is in charge of guiding the digital transformation. Another aspect to achieve digital mastery is to know the current digital and leadership capabilities of a company and improve them. What do you think?