Adapt, disrupt, transform, disappear: The 2015 chief digital officer study

The digital revolution is moving fast and spurring massive disruptions and transformations in industry after industry. A key sign of its growing importance is the rise of a new kind of executive: the chief digital officer, or CDO. Although the number of companies that have already hired CDOs remains small — just 6 percent globally, according to the results of our first annual study of the position — their ranks are clearly growing rapidly.

The CDOs themselves, more than 40 percent of whom are members of the C-suite, come from a variety of backgrounds, but by far the most common is marketing and sales, followed by technology. This suggests just how differently the CDOs and the companies that hire them imagine the role, and how varied the digital needs and pace of transformation are from one company to another.