As many types of businesses, including health systems, combine the roles of CIO and chief digital officer, executive search firm Egon Zehnder laid out the pros and cons May 14 of each type of leadership structure.
Combining digital, IT and data into a single chief digital information officer or chief digital technology officer:
— Enables an overarching technology vision for the company.
— Allows disputes between IT and digital to be handled by one person and not flow up to the CEO.
— This structure tends to be the most attractive to leading tech talent.
— The challenge is finding executives who combine the right experience with the needed skill sets and leadership abilities.
Splitting technology roles into a CIO, chief digital officer and chief data officer:
— Allows for a more focused approach to each specialty.
— Enables leaders to construct teams that have deep functional expertise.
— Can lead to a dearth of coordination or lack of a unified digital vision.
— This model is generally less attractive to outside talent, who may be accustomed to more ownership of each given function.