Dong Xiaoying, Digital Industry Innovation Research Center: The most lack of leadership talents in digital transformation The core perspective of chief digital officers needs to shift from technology to organizational strategy

Per reporter: Xie Zhenyu Per intern reporter: Fan Qianqian Per reporter Per editor: Wei Guanhong

On December 16, the 2021 China Digital Annual Conference opened in Chengdu. Dong Xiaoying, Emeritus Professor of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University and Chairman of the Digital Industry Innovation Research Center, released and interpreted the 2021 China Chief Digital Officer White Paper.

Dong Xiaoying believes that people are the most critical issue in the digital transformation of enterprises, and the most lacking talents are digital implementation promoters and digital strategy leaders, that is, chief digital officers and chief information officers. "At present, these professionals have some technical diseases, and chief digital officers need to jump out of the perspective of technology as the core and shift to the organizational business and strategy as the core, which requires stronger empathy, learning and communication skills."

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, digital transformation has become a hot topic of discussion among enterprises. Why should businesses digitally transform? Dong Xiaoying believes that the changes of digital transformation for enterprises are reflected in four aspects, including reducing costs and increasing efficiency within enterprises, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty, increasing sales revenue of enterprises, and expanding industry influence.

"This year's data findings have increased in the fourth dimension, particularly improving environmental resilience, expanding boundaries and gaining opportunities for future growth." Dong Xiaoying said.

Therefore, digital transformation is a strategic issue for both large and small and medium-sized enterprises.

"We found in the survey that many large enterprises have the problem of arrears of receivables to small and medium-sized enterprises, which brings very large survival pressure to small and medium-sized enterprises, but in the future, through the blockchain to do innovation in the system, once the transaction is reached, the process of payment to small and medium-sized enterprises (large enterprises) can be automatically completed by third-party financial institutions." Dong Xiaoying said, "To create a better living space for small and medium-sized enterprises, let them develop specialization and innovation, so that China's entire economic structure and modern enterprise structure will become a highly flexible and agile organizational system." ”

From the perspective of development stage, the proportion of digital transformation of Chinese enterprises is still lower than that of European and American countries, what difficulties are faced by enterprises? In July this year, Dong Xiaoying's team conducted a survey of 138 state-owned enterprises, and they found that the biggest problems were reflected in three aspects: digital strategy, digital talent, and digital methods.

Digital strategy is aimed at the highest level of problems, one is the prediction of the outside, the other is internal decision-making; digital talent refers to the formation of a common vision at the top level, driving the middle and grass-roots levels to implement and promote; the digital approach is mainly organizational planning and change capabilities. Dong Xiaoying said, "There are still many difficulties in reaching consensus at the highest level, and the grassroots, especially the old employees, are sometimes not very acceptable." "Therefore, people are the most critical issue in digital transformation.

"At present, many of our surveys reflect that the digital transformation of enterprises is a leading project presided over by the chairman and general manager, but in fact, digitalization is a relatively professional work, and professional talents are needed." Dong Xiaoying analyzed.

The survey results of Dong Xiaoying's team from 2018 to 2021 show that the most lacking digital talents in enterprises are digital implementation promoters, digital strategy leaders, and digital project managers (familiar with digital technologies and businesses, developing the latest management methods, and implementing agile working methods), and the data for these three items in 2021 is about 30%.

Professionals in this area are known as chief digital officers and chief information officers in the industry, but there are not many companies that have set up chief digital officers and chief information officers.

"Now the status of the chief digital officer is not very high, because the digital asset is not large enough, the status of the chief data officer in the future will exceed the chief financial officer, the financial asset will become an element of the digital asset, and the chief digital officer will lead the change of the entire organization." Dong Xiaoying believes that "in the future, after the physical assets are digitized, a large number of digital assets will be formed, and how to mine, analyze, visualize decision support, and create value also requires professional skills." ”

In addition, there are still some drawbacks in the current group of chief digital officers and cipher officers. "At the meeting in March, a CIO wrote me about some of the limitations of CIOs who have traditionally engaged in technology, which I think are very representative." The CIO writes about technology at its core; overconfidence and narcissism; technological perfectionism; technology worship and dependence; self-centered and self-limiting; attributing problems to the conservative and backward nature of the business.

Dong Xiaoying believes that chief digital officers need to jump out of the perspective of technology as the core and shift to the core of organizational business and strategy, which requires stronger commonality, learning and communication skills. "You can't just talk about the language of technology, but also the language of strategy, the language of business, being good at dealing with people, being able to help others succeed first, and then realizing the traction of your own career." She said.

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