Tricia BlairThe hiring of Chief Digital Officers has doubled every year since 2005. The CDO role is here to stay, and it is their job to put the customer first by being focused on strategy and execution, by never being afraid of failure and being able to recruit and retain talent that will get their enterprise and C-suite thinking digitally. If the new CDO wants to show business how they can get to the next level of growth and innovation through digital channels, how can he or she immediately come into the role and make an impact? What should be their primary responsibilities and goals in the first year on the job?
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Transcript
Sanjog Aul [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to CIO Talk Radio. To learn more about this show, please visit www.ciotalkradio.com and as always, we invite you to join the discussion on Twitter #Ctrlive and look for this show as #CDO. Today’s topic is the Chief Digital Officer’s First 12 months. And our guest for today’s show is Tricia Blair, who’s the Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer and Head of Enterprise IT services with LinkedIn Financial Group. Good morning Tricia, how are you?
Tricia Blairr [00:00:30]:
Good morning. I’m great. Thank you.
Sanjog Aul [00:00:33]:
Great. So is business doing well?
Tricia Blairr [00:00:35]:
Business is fantastic.
Sanjog Aul [00:00:37]:
Great. Now back at the start of April when we did a show on the ear of the Chief Digital Officer and explored the needs for this new role as you’re in midst of an era of digital disruption and dynamic change. So we talked about what the CDs responsibilities should be and what sort of background they should have. But there’s so much more conversation to be had on the subject. Today we wanted to ask how the Chief Digital Officer can come into the company and perhaps immediately make a difference in their first year on the job. So Tricia, when you look at the role this role has is not new, but it is somehow gaining a lot of heat and a lot of visibility. What are specific things that are set as expectations by a candidate like yourself who’s assuming the role and the business who wants somebody to assume that role?
Tricia Blairr [00:01:30]:
Sure. So I think it’s twofold. As the business assuming they want the role and setting their expectations around the role. I think that senior leaders, CEOs, etcetera, C suite, need to really think carefully about what are they feeling that their gaps are and what are their longer term expectations around the integration of digital in every part of their business. From the CDO perspective, if you’re coming new into an organization, you really need to spend time out of the gate understanding what the business strategic objectives are and also taking a really broad brushed view and perspective on what each of the lines of business are doing in this digital space and then start to build a roadmap out on how the digital transformation can best affect that organization.
Sanjog Aul [00:02:30]:
So would you look at different aspects? Because every organization and almost a decade ago started seeing the value of going digital and they somehow started utilizing whosoever they had, the leadership as well as the people to take an organization digital. Yes, they might have planned it the best way possible, but then they somehow realized that we need a dedicated soldier and or a leader who’s going to lead the pack if you will.
Tricia Blairr [00:02:53]:
Sure.
Tricia Blairr [00:02:54]:
Sure. So if you look 10 years ago, those of us that were pioneers in the digital space when we, you know, called it web services and E Business really we’re looking at how to leverage websites specifically to, you know, save money and, or make money and sometimes both. But really what’s happened in the last five years is this transformation on other aspects of digital and thinking about digital technology more holistically. It still of course is included and we have to think about our web presence but now you have to think much broader. The integration of mobile and the transformation of all aspects of our work life into digital element, the collaboration tools, social media mobility are all making I think organizations really think about how to laser focus and to purgate in that role. And I think that’s what’s really evolved, the role in partnership because the technology just keeps progressing and so much more of how we want to work and how our consumers expect us to interact with them is in this digital framework. Not the only channel, but I think it’s a growing channel that’s really crossing expectations and behaviors.
Sanjog Aul [00:04:14]:
Needs are growing and based on your response when I totally see the value where, when the digital era in which we live in, then the way we live our lives and do business, if that’s fundamentally changing, then everything which we are doing should not truly be dependent on what’s next available as a social media platform or a technology platform. It’s just how the consumer is changing, their pattern is changing and then everything should be around that. So do you think that’s what they’re expecting? A business is expecting from a CDO to bring or they would say we have great ideas, why don’t you come and implement?
Tricia Blairr [00:04:49]:
I think it really is going to depend. I don’t think there’s one size fits all model. I do think it’s for CDOs who come into organizations where the organization is saying we are, we have the ideas, we just want to implement. I think the CDO has to test that a little bit and has to really help the organization think big picture and are they, are they only thinking about web and mobile applications? There’s a broader spectrum of I think digital technology to think about. I will say though that the technologies keep evolving but we have to stay focused as Chief Digital Officers on customer centricity and really looking at this lens of what is the behavioral data and how people are using digital assets changing and how do we then meet expectations in a changing landscape, consumer expectation. We have to keep saying a step ahead and using behavioral data to drive those future choices that we make in organizations because the technology will keep evolving and there are so many choices on the technology platform today.
Sanjog Aul [00:06:03]:
Now the way you explained it is definitely very valuable advice for whosoever is approaching it. A lot of companies perhaps may have not exactly articulated in that crisp manner the way you did. However they to some extent kind of say we get it but devil is in the execution and or the details. So the CDO who comes are they supposed to just bring clarity? So if suppose a new person gets inducted in the CDO role, what are they supposed to do that AKA I just wanted to lay out a roadmap which is going to work my way or are you going to be inclusive of everybody else’s idea and say what’s good, what’s not good and then just lay out a plan. What starts first here? Do you think strategy is already in place and you are coming more as an execution expert?
Tricia Blairr [00:06:46]:
No. I would expect for most. I know in my personal experience that there are pockets of strategy in the digital space but I think a CDO job coming in is to look at that holistically across The Enterprise and CDOs are joining very complex multifaceted organizations and you have to start to look and take that sort of what I call big E enterprise view of how will all of these individual strategies or individual initiatives really holistically change the landscape but you also I think we are incented to execute. Execution and being a the ability to execute is core to success. I think of a CDO as well. So it’s this balance of really getting the strategic roadmap.
Tricia Blairr [00:07:37]:
But that requires extensive collaboration and my advice would be don’t assume that you’re going to do that without a lot of input from your partner, is both in technology. If the CDO role is not in a technology hierarchy but Chief Marketing Officers, call center leaders, manufacture product manufacturing. There are critical stakeholders across the organization that I think Chief Digital Officers end up with a better product when you all work together to define that strategy.
Sanjog Aul [00:08:12]:
Now you have a unique position where you’re Chief Digital Officer and also have leadership in the IT side. Many organizations are looking at Chief Digital Officer primarily as a business role who by design is not. It’s kind of left abstracted from technology so that they’re not hung up with the actual execution and instead be the ones who are drawing pretty pictures and things which will take them to the next level of profitability.
Tricia Blairr [00:08:40]:
Yeah, I think there are a number of models out there. Interestingly enough at Lincoln Financial we started with the model of the digital Chief Digital Officer being a what we called shared service, more aligned on the enterprise business side than an IT function. I think as we’ve evolved and matured the role and also looked at sort of my skills and development, I think that we evolved here at Lincoln in terms of that role being able to really hierarchically sit and take on broader responsibilities in the technology organization. But still really, I believe my role as Chief Digital Officer is constant to bridge It’s a hybrid. I am a, did not grow up in the technology space per se. My classically trained business executive. It was a marketing and product development plant tied to the technology and believe that technology is going to really drive the future.
Tricia Blairr [00:09:44]:
I think every organization really needs to think about what their own cultural makeup is and what the expectations are of a Chief Judicial officer. This model at Lincoln works. It might not be the model that works best in another organization.
Sanjog Aul [00:10:00]:
So if you were to inventory the different flavors of CDOs that perhaps exist today, given the type of business needs exist, can we literally count them on fingers so that we, we have at least some definition or a set of common definitions?
Tricia Blairr [00:10:15]:
I think there are probably three models that I see more consistently. One is a standalone Chief Digital Officer really focused on driving strategy but relying heavily on execution happening at the line of business level and that role, as I see it, those chief divorce tend in my, in the experience that I have and in my peer group tend to be really setting high level strategy and then governing across an enterprise to standardize and ensure a holistic approach. There is also I think a growing number of Chief Digital Officers who are really replacing that old head of E business responsible for end to end work on digital but aren’t necessarily sitting in marketing or in it. And then I think there’s a third category which is very strong Chief Digital Officer but aligned more on the technology side and I think that really depends on how technology is perceived within organization and also individual CDOs and where their skills align.
Sanjog Aul [00:11:30]:
Let’s take a quick break listeners. We’ll be right back. And let’s look at of course you laid out the three flavors of CDOs that may be the core models or fundamental framework within which a CDO might execute. Now when they are in an interview stage and there are some expectations set from either side, what all can a CDO who is looking to get hired within a given company find out from an organization to figure out whether they will be a good fit? Let’s start there. We’ll be coming back and exploring it. Please stay tuned listeners.
Sanjog Aul [00:13:32]:
Welcome back. So, interview stage, questions asked and answers given from either side. What do you think you can pick up from the responses as a CDO aspirant who’s going to be going and joining a company, or at least evaluating a company, whether it’s a good one and if you do end up joining, basically use that as a basis of your first few months of strategy or next steps.
Tricia Blairr [00:13:55]:
Sure. So I think what’s critical for someone interviewing for a CDO position is you get a good, I think, perspective based off of who you are interviewing with. I would be looking for interviewing with the senior leaders across the organization, including marketing technology, the CEO and other sort of core COO type position and the breadth of who they’re asking you to interview with I think is a key indication on where they believe the Chief Digital Officer role sits and what that peer group will look like. I think some of the questions to ask are really around what do they, what do each of them view as the gap that they have in their digital strategy today? And what do they and how do they perceive technology impacting their business model in the future? And I think those are the kinds of questions that I would ask to really glean from the organization leaders where they sit and what their philosophy is about technology. Right. I mean, there are organizations that are expecting and have a culture around always being and making technology decisions a priority and driving from A technology lens. And there are organizations where they’re more sales oriented and driving things in a more traditional sales culture may want to leverage technology, but they’ll want to leverage it differently. So you’ve got to really understand what are the motivators that that organization is thinking about in terms of digital.
Tricia Blairr [00:15:48]:
And you also have to go in, prepare to help them test some of those assumptions and have done your homework about what that organization is currently doing. And then I always advise folks to test the waters a little bit about receptivity to new concepts. Do you throw a sort of newer, newer idea out there in your interview process and really see what’s the reaction? Do you get a sort of oh no, no, that will never work here kind of answer or do does it do folks’s intrigue and interest pick up that helps you also gauge the level of interest in really transforming and leveraging digital asset.
Sanjog Aul [00:16:29]:
So perhaps everything goes well in an interview and life is good and you get the job and now an organization is ready to receive you and you’re ready to make a difference. Now all along the discussion happened. It did not happen at the only at the basically for the most part it happened at the top level. So when you come in an organization, while you might have executive sponsorship, but you may not have the functional or operational leader support or even the staff support yet and you wanted to try things what would be first few things for you to do to start listening in or developing respect so that people would want to follow you or at least allow you to use those sandboxes that you want to use.
Tricia Blairr [00:17:09]:
Yeah.In my experience. Is this about. Look, this is back to leadership basics. Develop relationship, listen and learn and find some quick win advocacy with one or two don’t try to. Don’t try to spread peanut butter and do everything for all people. Find some key business partner with somebody that really you you’ve got good synergy with who’s willing to experiment and get some quick wins before you try to attack the big picture.
Sanjog Aul [00:17:44]:
So when you’re coming in and the the basic leadership traits that you mentioned somebody has to demonstrate in order to get where all do you think people especially in that role because this role may not initially have a huge staff to begin with.
Sanjog Aul [00:17:58]:
And so you are kind of a pseudo program manager while there’s a lofty title. But you are. You could be lonely.
Tricia Blairr [00:18:04]:
Yeah.
Sanjog Aul [00:18:05]:
So how do you garner support when you do not have reportees? You act and you do not have influence.
Tricia Blairr [00:18:13]:
I think that level of trust and that level of relationship building is earned and again it goes back to basic development of relationship. Build a strong relationship with the technology leaders. If you’re not responsible for technology and your CDO role, find and really partner extensively with the Chief Marketing Officer and core marketing stakeholders in the organization because they’re going to be synergies on what their business objectives are with yours as the Chief Digital Officer and help drive something that they’ve really wanted to do that has maybe been difficult or more challenging for that C or CIO to get done and be a champion on one of their causes and be careful about just trying to set your own agenda.
Sanjog Aul [00:19:03]:
So when you are inside and while you might be gaining influence over people but there’s a mindset which is around customer centricity and there could be possibility where you the company doesn’t really work on that much of a customer centric view and shareholder value is beyond employees value or it is take it basically is above what employee value is. And if you’re coming and trying to make a positive change where all the strategies that you’re going to be actually deploying has to eventually be customer centric for them to be successful. So now who do you go to? Because you cannot just be Hercules and do everything including what are different mindsets that prevail.
Tricia Blairr [00:19:44]:
Yeah. So I think you hit it in that the Chief Digital Officer’s role is to some extent very much tied to being an advocate for consumer centricity and what’s going to be right for the for the customer. And again I think partnership with Chief Marketing officers as they are very focused on that or if there is a Chief Experience Officer is that is also a growing role. It’s important to build those relationships. I will share depending on the maturity of the organization from an analytics standpoint. The other key I think is also really diving into the data that you have available or creating out of the gate. If the data is not available, how are you going to demonstrate and get to that level of data around customer expectations, customers current behavior and focus on those items through the existing data or creating opportunities to generate that data so that you really can make data driven decisions? I know I’ve found that we as companies with that have been in business for a long time there you, you kind of get into your groove and there are assumptions made about what customers really want versus what we at home office think they want. And the more you can leverage that data or at least drum up funding for focus groups if you don’t have good robust digital analytical data at your fingertips, I think is really critical, let the customer really help drive and influence the change.
Tricia Blairr [00:21:21]:
If you have a lot of change to make in the organization.
Sanjog Aul [00:21:25]:
So like sometimes defining strategy is like predicting weather and sometimes it works, at other times it doesn’t. So how much immunity can be provided to a Digital Officer or you seek that immunity because you are having a sandbox, you’re trying things which may not have been tried before, you may not have the data to support analytics, etcetera.
Tricia Blairr [00:21:46]:
Hopefully through the interview process you’ve gotten a bit of a sense of how willing is the organization to take risks and how do they think about experimental design and is it a culture that accepts failure? And then you have to work your based off of having defined that. You have to sort of test that envelope a little bit. We’ve done work here and we do a lot where we’ve used prototyping and small sort of real life experience prototyping to try to help build cases for future bigger scale development. And that’s worked very well for us here, which is show it on a small scale, build it and make it interactive in your sandbox. Do the focus groups, we have sort of friends and family kind of approach where we will bring in high value producers and show them and get their feedback on a prototype before we even go live or have spent a lot of money. So I think those are important ways to really demonstrate and get a gauge for an organization’s appetite for that risk and for failure.
Sanjog Aul [00:22:58]:
Now would you see any gaps in the way organizations are developing their digital strategy and which becomes the foundation of failure?
Tricia Blairr [00:23:05]:
I think one of the biggest gap is then is that I don’t think there’s so much focus on external facing, mobile application, mobile development, which is all important, but I’m not sure we’ve thought holistically around automation, digital capabilities, collaboration tools are going to change the framework for how we as an organization operate. And I think that’s coming and we’re doing some of that work now to really think about what’s the future employee. Because as the chief digital officer here at Lincoln, I think about our employees as a core audience and responsibility of mine as well. And I think the way we work is going to change in addition to the way that our consumers want us to work with them. And I don’t know if I think organizations in totality are doing enough of that kind of future visioning work of what is the workplace going to be in a digital age.
Sanjog Aul [00:24:16]:
Would you say that there has to be something earth shattering in the way we define our digital strategies? Or it could very well be emulating or in some cases imitating what the competitors are doing. At least to play catch up initially and then try to do some blue sky innovation.
Tricia Blairr [00:24:33]:
No, I think that’s somewhat cultural and you have to understand where your organization fits on that. Some organizations are not not comfortable with being a leader in less proven technologies and others like to be more fast followers. So I think you have to really understand what the guardrails are or what the organization can handle. I think that, I mean I’ve spent a number of years in the financial services sector and we tend to not super blue ocean thinkers, but it’s been that blue ocean thinking in a couple of cases that have really changed the bar and have helped us. I think in my role at Lincoln really think about the future differently. You just have to know what your company’s appetite is for that kind of thinking.
Sanjog Aul [00:25:25]:
Let’s take a quick break listeners. We’ll be right back and look at the different type of experimentation we can carry out in the earlier stages of a CDO’s job to see what’s that sweet spot and let that become the basis of the blueprint that can be laid out because it can anyway not be laid out in the very beginning till the time we play with it a little bit what the environment is and what things work and don’t work. So please stay tuned listeners. We’ll be right back and explore.
Sanjog Aul [00:27:23]:
Welcome back. So initial months or days yeah. And the first year, essentially what kind of experimentation would you recommend CDO’s go through to assess everything around them, the strategy, the environment, the possibilities and all?
Tricia Blairr [00:27:38]:
Yeah, I mean I think the experimentation is about if you’ve done your due diligence, you’ve really spent the time understanding the business objectives and the current sort of roadmap or strategy that’s in place. I think the experimentation, experimentation point comes in about. So start to some of the fundamental opinions, start to explore what folk tolerance is for thinking outside the box. And as I said, I think in one of my earlier comments that when we first started here at Lincoln to explore with some of the mobile application and how it would, we thought it would really support what we were starting to see in the marketplace with tablets, et cetera. We, we didn’t get a, we got a sort of lukewarm reception on, on, on that value and we took a little bit of a risk and went ahead and built a prototype. And as folks started to be able to see the interaction with the, with the idea, we were able to really gain some really nice traction. But we were ready to fail small, with a very small budget on a prototype. And I think you have to keep experimenting with those kinds of things and keep looking for those champions and it’s not one size fit all and you may need a couple of different sort of ideas and things to think about depending on what you found in the organization in terms of their maturity around the technology tool set.
Tricia Blairr [00:29:21]:
I mean I came into a traditional insurance company. Social media was not on the radar and using social media was something that had not been thought of as really an area that the organization was comfortable with and we used a lot of outside insights and started small. So we did a lot of, had a very clear objective around how to just test the waters, how to put our toe in the water at that point and show that it didn’t create major disruption and just become another complaint vehicle which was some of the early fear and that we could work with the regulators to demonstrate how you could use social media in an insurance organization. So I think you have to really just keep things small and, but also make sure you have business advocacy or I’ve just found in my career that it just doesn’t work.
Sanjog Aul [00:30:16]:
If you had to do that all over again and since you for the last couple of years, what would you have done differently if you had to do it again?
Tricia Blairr [00:30:24]:
So if I had a do over Sanjay, I would, I would take from, I would definitely make sure that I spent more Time understanding the real fabric of the different organizations and with an interesting time coming in right before the financial crisis, it gave us an opportunity to I think take a step back and really look at what was needed instead of barreling full speed ahead. And I think that’s important is to balance wanting to move forward and to demonstrate value, but also making sure that you’ve done, you’ve really built those relationships. And I, if I had to do over, I would spend more time having really developed stronger relationships early on now.
Sanjog Aul [00:31:13]:
As if it was not enough for a CIO or a person in IT to know business comes Chief Digital Officer and they are primarily business people who happen to use some technology to get things done. Are you expected to know all business functions and the industry domain down to the T in order for you to speak intelligently with the business users and gain respect?
Tricia Blairr [00:31:36]:
I don’t think so. That’s based off of my personal experience. I came from a banking and credit card industry and realized very quickly that life insurance, annuities, retirement group protection were very different businesses. And I think you have to have a level of curiosity, you have to be willing to ask questions, you have to be willing to do research. But remember you’re being brought in because you have digital expertise. You understand the digital landscape and how to apply that to different businesses is where you have to really use your digital expertise and start to look at how does it impact different businesses. Right. I mean and look at it from very different lens and be flexible in looking at it from those lenses when you’re not from that industry.
Sanjog Aul [00:32:29]:
If you were to go back and look at some of your peer groups and compare how they as CDOs carried out, what they did, what worked, what did not work. Are there any specific anecdotes that you feel would help the listeners in terms of what not to do?
Tricia Blairr [00:32:47]:
I think as I said, I think the item not to do is assume that the organization is ready for digital transformation because the CEO hired you and is supportive and saw the vision and knows that there’s a future and felt that there was a gap. It does not mean that the organization is ready for the speed of digital transformation that many CTOs want. We, I think we tend to be rapid fire thinkers. We tend to want to move very quickly. We’re usually relatively accepting of change and pushing the envelope that may not be the best approach within your organization and you’ve got to really align and you’re going to have longer term success. If learn what is tolerated and then I think push on that a little bit depending on the organizational culture.
Sanjog Aul [00:33:49]:
How collaborative do you think the business leaders want to be? How much of their own time they would be voluntarily investing in order to make this digital strategy successful? Is it something that you got to get lucky or is that something you have to coach and train and educate them, that without your contribution and collaboration, this will not help? Would they be able to take one more item on their already spilling plate?
Tricia Blairr [00:34:14]:
I think most leaders very interested and in my experience, I’ve found that they really want to understand the digital space. I think we have an obligation as Chief Digital Officers that a large portion of our responsibility is on that. Teaching and sharing and educating and then being business partners, being collaborative is key and finding those nuggets of potential opportunity and then, and then working them with our business partners. And I believe fundamentally that the more I can help my business partners meet their objectives, the more I meet my objectives as the Chief Digital Officer.
Sanjog Aul [00:34:55]:
So while all the conversation that we’ve had so far has been primarily pertaining to the executive staff and that’s where strategy, et cetera, was happening. How do you think the workforce, whether business users or technology or any other business function, how are they seeing this and what’s in it for them to follow the leader, which could be you or anyone in your shoes.
Tricia Blairr [00:35:18]:
Yeah, I mean in the digital space, but even in any organization, a large percentage of our incoming talent and workforce is the is millennials. And they are a natural advocate for a Chief Digital Officer. They have grown up, they’re used to the tools, they understand how to interact with them. They want to incorporate those digital tools, social, mobile, etcetera, into their work life. They don’t. They want to have the same level of tools that they have in their personal life. And so we, I find that workforce to be a high value in helping really drive that transformation.
Sanjog Aul [00:36:03]:
And so are they looking or they’re looking up to you for something, would you say?
Tricia Blairr [00:36:08]:
I think there’s an expectation, if an organization hires a Chief Digital Officer, that we’re going to get more progressive and that the tool set within an organization is going to get more progressive and that we’ll have more collaboration tools, we’ll be able to use social media and there’s a balance. Especially in highly regulated organization business industries like pharmaceuticals, financial services, there’s a balance where and part of my job sometimes is also explaining why one particular portfolio of technologies, why we need to tread more carefully than others, is tied to our regulatory environment and that we have obligations to self regulate. And then also work with regulators in some regards on how do we change, how do we change the perception of how we integrate some of this digital technology. So you have to. It goes both ways, I think there’s a higher expectation by that workforce that the tools will immediately be available and sometimes that always isn’t the right thing for the organization in total and I have to be able to explain why.
Sanjog Aul [00:37:15]:
Let’s take a quick break, listeners. We’ll be right back. And Tricia, when we come back, let’s look at the competencies which you may have use the most or leverage the most, which you had already developed over the years and some of the competencies you saw as a need to be developed a little more honed a little more in order for you to be more effective. So please stay tuned, listeners. We’ll be right back.
Sanjog Aul [00:39:04]:
Welcome back. So Tricia, which competencies would you say you saw that you improved as part of living this role? Which ones did you have to develop and what is coming up where in order for you to get to the next level? And that’s essentially not just Patricia, but all CDOs who are currently working in that role and or the people who are aspiring to get there?
Tricia Blairr [00:39:28]:
Sure. I think for me personally the competency that has continued to improve and needed the most improvement was is that what was about my the breadth of knowledge that I had about technology specifically and the complex of the solutions that are out there was something that I really felt in my role as we’ve evolved, the Chief Digital role, that I had not only an obligation to myself but to the organization to really hone those that understanding and to continue to develop the technology components. I think have sort of, I think two chant more or less. You have CDOs that have come out of technology and for them really honing in on their architecture and design skills. The understanding the business, being able to articulate very complex technical solutions and really making it relevant to business partners is where the competencies really need to evolve for the CDOs that are coming out of the business. And I think that technology, but also having an enterprise view and really understanding consumer behavior. I’ve spent also a lot of time on really on behavior economics, the growing changes of consumer behavior and spending a lot of time in that sort of vein and getting really deep in that insight side is another area that I think we all have to spend a lot more time on.
Sanjog Aul [00:41:10]:
Would you say the CDO role is for when you’re getting into this role and you’ve got these first 12 months, would there be a sequence of steps that you would follow in order for you to have a predictable success Or is it going to be first year of dabbling into different things, finding your sweet spot and somehow plant your feet for the years to come and be able to successfully deliver on the promises you made?
Tricia Blairr [00:41:34]:
I think it again really depends on what organizational framework you’re coming into and what expectations have been set. But I do think that it’s important to define that early. And even if the expectations are really quick wins, make sure you’ve built that advocacy and those relationships because none of us really should think we should do it alone. You’ve got to build those relationships and that advocacy and that’s sometimes hard because you have an agenda and you’re being you want to make a quick win, you want to make an impactful change quickly. But my experience is that the more partnership you develop early, the more successful those wins will ultimately be and you’ll get more of them faster as you move on.
Sanjog Aul [00:42:23]:
Now, do you develop your own benchmark of whether you are being successful in your role and it’s this digital strategy is getting successfully implemented and creating value or is it going to be always the top guys who are going to say okay, thumbs up or thumbs down?
Tricia Blairr [00:42:39]:
Absolutely. I think successful Chief Digital Officers, like any C suite level role, you’ve got to be very clear on your own objectives and what success is and then and not get complacent. I think that’s a critical element of a Chief Digital Officer role, is really not. We have some wins, but don’t get complacent. We have to keep thinking three, five years out. We have to keep thinking about what will be the next technology, but also what will the consumer’s reception to that technology be and how are we going to help influence that reception and that usage.
Sanjog Aul [00:43:17]:
So what type of emotional intelligence has to be demonstrated and you should have in order to take on. This is not a simple role.
Tricia Blairr [00:43:26]:
This is not coming in.
Sanjog Aul [00:43:28]:
Definitely not. And if you are coming in and this is your first year and we know that there are so many unknowns, whether it’s the organization or even the way technology is going to change or consumer behavior and patterns are going to change, how do you keep your sanity intact? What’s your recommendation for folks who are trying this?
Tricia Blairr [00:43:45]:
I think you have to. You’re brought in as a Chief Digital Officer because you’ve already demonstrated competency, your space. You already have the skills to be a leader. Don’t forget this fundamental and. And don’t forget about. About balance and really continue to think about it from all aspects. And don’t boil the ocean if you just don’t boil the ocean.
Sanjog Aul [00:44:12]:
All right, so. So now in terms of the first year for a Chief Digital Officer, would you recommend. When people are coming in, they should have any sort of education that they should go through versus saying, I learned whatever I learned over the years and I’m just going to apply it.
Tricia Blairr [00:44:30]:
I think all of us owe it to ourselves to keep learning. I mean, I think one of the things that keeps us fresh and it is that ability to keep learning and to not fundamentally believe that we know everything to do this job. I know I certainly don’t. I learn every day. I have surrounded myself with extraordinarily talented folks from all aspects and from multiple industries of marketing, digital capabilities and technology. That to me is just fundamental to who I am and it keeps me growing. If I’m not growing, then I don’t think I’m a good leader.
Sanjog Aul [00:45:09]:
On behalf of the show and the listeners, I’d really like to thank you, Tricia, for sharing your thoughts on how Chief Digital Officers can best spend their first 12 months.
Tricia Blairr [00:45:19]:
Absolutely. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Sanjog Aul [00:45:22]:
Thank you so much again. And listeners, please like us on Facebook, search for CIO Talk Radio and please be sure to follow us on Twitter. Thank you again for listening to CIO Talk Radio. This is Sanjog Aul your talk show host till next week. Take care and God bless.
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