FEATURE : 2024 CIOS ’ PRIORITY

Scott Glenn , Partner and Lead of US CIO advisory group , BearingPoint , says CIOs need to drive the C-suite to welcome transformative change .

Focus on what is possible tomorrow , not what is happening today

One of the biggest traps that businesses fall into when starting out on their Digital Transformation journey is focusing too heavily on their current operations . Transformation means change and it is no surprise that internal teams are often initially resistant to this . There is comfort in familiar processes and systems , after all . However , to get to the next level , disruptive change is necessary , meaning CIOs need to help internal teams get comfortable with stepping out of their comfort zones .

As many organizations ’ legacy IT systems are reaching the end of their lives , change is business-critical and Digital Transformation is shifting from a ‘ nice to have ’ to ‘ necessary to exist ’.

With every company now running on technology , regardless of size or industry , it ’ s imperative to have a digitization plan . Unfortunately , there is no one answer to achieving IT transformation .

To break this tendency , CIOs should begin by envisioning the future . They can start by considering key factors such as industry benchmarking , business operations across the entire value chain and the needs of internal teams and customers .

Don ’ t be afraid to make significant changes to achieve your goals

Successful transformation projects can prompt internal discomfort as they shed light on areas of dysfunction or inefficiency . On occasion , all it takes to fix these are small-scale low intervention changes . However , CIOs tackling Digital Transformation should be ready for the reality that radical change , even a full organizational redesign , may be necessary – and broader leadership teams should be prepared for this too .

As the Lead of the US CIO Advisory Group at BearingPoint , I have been involved in many Digital Transformation projects and had the privilege of advising the CIOs responsible for managing them . After 30 years in the business , I ’ ve distilled some key learnings from my time in the industry down into five common pitfalls to avoid for any CIO tasked with the daunting challenge of a Digital Transformation project .

There can be a tendency among those businesses more resistant to change to say : “ We ’ re different , that won ’ t work for us ”.

Twenty years of working in consulting has shown me that no business is really that different . There are nuances , but the fundamental challenges that businesses face are the same . When faced with initial resistance , consider

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