“The role of chief digital officer is beginning to take off in Europe, while salaries of CDOs working outside of public sector and non-profit organisations are ranging from $250,000 to $750,000.

That is according to updated research from the CDO Club, which said that the number of worldwide CDOs in 2013 doubled to nearly 500. It forecasted “conservatively” that the number of global chief digital officers would double again to 1,000 by the end of 2014. Most chief digital officers are operating in the media, advertising and publishing industries, the study found.”

“Last month, State of New York CDO and deputy secretary for technology, Rachel S Haot, was named the 2014 Chief Digital Officer of the Year by the CDO Club at their summit in New York.”

The CDO role is fulfilling promise that CIOs and CTOs have often aspired to,” said Dave Mathison, organizer of the upcoming CDO Summit in NYC on 4/22-23. “While CIOs and CTOs often struggle to fit the idea of business leadership into their roles, the entire mission of a CDO is leadership. In my view, the next generation of CEOs will come from the CDO role.

“There is an important consequence of this increasing focus on customer data and customer experience, says David Mathison, a New York-based executive search specialist and founder of the CDO Club, a networking organisation for chief digital officers and others in related roles.

An understanding of data analysis techniques and approaches is now a must-have skill for anyone with ambitions to lead their company’s digital transformation strategy, he says.

“There are plenty of data out there and not enough insight – and that’s broadly true across companies, non-profit organisations and government agencies,” says Mr Mathison.

That is not to say that those in charge of starting new digital channels need to be highly technical, “big data” specialists, he stresses: they typically have an insights and analytics team to provide that expertise.

But they must have a very firm grasp of what their data are telling them, “because, after all, that’s where competitive advantage really lies”.

January 7, 2014: “Essentially, the CDO skillset is entrepreneurial. It’s not really about technology tools or marketing savvy, but about being able to run a business, grow revenues and cut costs. It’s about demonstrable experience of successfully handling profit/loss responsibility,” Mathison explains.

“CDO to CEO is starting to look like a much faster career track than CIO to CEO. Why wouldn’t a smart technology leader want to get involved?”

January 3, 2014: According to Mathison, “To start the New Year off right, the most important thing a new CDO can do is to craft and deliver the digital strategy. This should be a cross-departmental blueprint with input from all key stakeholders. It must include achievable and realistic goals; identification of the tools, resources, capital and team necessary to achieve those goals; a clear definition of roles and responsibilities; and key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring your team’s performance against the goals. Once this is complete, the strategy should be clearly communicated to all involved.”

“Mathison says Chief Digital Officers can be found in every industry now. He also notes that despite the title implications, the CDO position is a business focused post, not a technical one. These people – if they are successful – will probably be running the show in three to five years. I’ve been surprised at how quickly it’s happening, Mathison predicts.”

“Mathison says Chief Digital Officers can be found in every industry now. He also notes that despite the title implications, the CDO position is a business focused post, not a technical one.”

November 13, 2013: “David Mathison, founder of the Chief Digital Officer Club, recently told the MIT Sloan Management Review that there will still be only 500 CDOs worldwide by the end of the year, although that is a big rise from the 75 or so that existed in 2011.”

November 7, 2013: “The CDO position, Mathison added, is increasingly the fast-track to the CEO seat. In 2013 alone, he said, more than seven CDOs became CEO, and more than four CDOs joined public boards. Considering there are not many CDOs around, that is a very impressive statistic, and reflects the importance of digital in business, education and our culture, Mathison said.”