CIOs and the Digital Transformation ─ A New Leadership Role

This book describes how chief information officers (CIOs) can embrace and drive the digital transformation by providing innovative leadership that uses old skills in a novel way. The book explores ways in which new actors and factors will play a key role in this process and how new relations can be created among things, data, and people. In addition, the design of digital organizations and the implementation of digital technologies are carefully examined and it is explained how digital workspaces can be designed, organized, and used. A set of methods is provided for linking new digital tools in order to meet the goals and challenges of building a digital enterprise.

The digital economy is disrupting the way of interaction within value chains, creating fresh spaces for competition and novel ecosystems. With the advent of social media networking, mobility, big data and cloud computing, 4.0 manufacturing, etc., we are witnessing the birth of new digital organizations. However, sharing of leadership of this change among different actors can create disorder and inefficiency. Against this background, the future role of the CIO will be crucial.

Giorgio Bongiorno has over 30 years of experience in country management, sales, sales management, and marketing. As Finaki representative in Italy, in 2001 he launched a successful yearly CIO gathering involving the major Italian companies and the most relevant ICT suppliers. As Managing Director for Olivetti Austria and Hungary, Giorgio was responsible for a staff of 500 people. In this position, he developed relationships with important reference customers and restructured the service and PC divisions, restoring profitability to the subsidiary within the planned two-year period. He is now President of Associated Business Consultants Sas, which actively cooperates with different US companies in Change Management matters for Europe. Giorgio attended MBA courses at the Universita Bocconi and received a doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano. He also received Masters degrees in Market Management and General Management from the International Management School. 

Daniele Rizzo is European CIO, Chief Information & Business Process Officer, and Head of the IT Shared Service Unit at Autogrill spa, the world’s biggest provider of food & beverage and retail services for travellers. Over the past 15 years, he has led the development of the IT portfolio at the company, and the transformation of its department in Europe. He started his career as a consultant for a global system integration firm and then became project and IT manager at a midsized grocery retailer. He is a member of Ca’ Foscari University’s DEL Strategic Committee and in 2015 served as president of the Finaki Italia CIO Community.

Giovanni Vaia is Professor of Global Sourcing with tenure at the Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. He graduated in business economics with honors and gained his doctorate in Organization and Technology. He is now completing a second PhD in Information Science at Turku School of Economics. Giovanni Vaia’s interests and publications include organization design with a specific focus on information systems, network governance, governance of information systems, and IT outsourcing. At Ca’ Foscari he has developed and now manages a panel of CIOs from multinational companies, focusing on the specialized areas of governance, business process management, and outsourcing. He is also Scientific Director of the Digital Enterprise LAB (DEL), a research unit center where people and organizations can explore the digital future and get to know new technologies. At DEL, organizations can debate new technological trends, future technologies, and their potential value for business and everyday life. Since 2014, he has also been an expert at European Commission – DG Connect.