Chief Digital Officer

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What Does Chief Digital Officer Mean?

A chief digital officer (CDO) is a senior executive role that is focused on driving growth in an enterprise, region or government through digitization of data. The chief digital officer identifies all potential areas that can be digitized and interact with one another. Given the importance that data or big data enjoys in modern world, the chief digital officer has roles and responsibilities that are both expansive and constantly changing.

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The chief digital officer’s role is sometimes confused with that of chief data officer, although responsibilities-wise, they are quite distinct roles.

Techopedia Explains Chief Digital Officer

From the time companies started hiring chief digital officers, their roles and responsibilities have changed significantly. In the past, chief digital officers would be expected to bring in digitization at some basic levels and probably handle a few pilot digitization projects. Now, they are expected to change the fortunes of a business by driving digitization throughout the enterprise.

Some responsibilities of the chief digital officer include:

  • Identifying potential digitization opportunities and pain points
  • Identifying revenue potential from digitization opportunities and driving the initiative
  • Enhancing customer satisfaction through digitization initiatives
  • Enabling employees with skills related to digitization

The chief digital officer reports to the CEO or COO. The role of the chief digital officer is constantly assuming more significance as more companies embark on the digital path.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.