Gartner filled their opening keynote with lots of advice for the Digital CIO.

As I’ve been saying on this blog for some time (see posts on agile thinking, cultural practices, and program management) digital transformation is not a bunch of business driven projects that have a beginning and an end. Transformation requires significant culture changes in how enterprises work internally, how they partner, how they fund investments, who they view as competitive threats, and how they evaluate strategic opportunities.

Are algorithms the intellectual property of significance in Digital Business? Gartner SVP Peter Sondergaard sold this to the thousands participating in their keynote with an expanded view of what defines an algorithm. Yes, it can be a machine learning algorithm, but it also might be the secret ingredients in your product (Heinz Ketchup) or proprietary steps in your workflows. Gartner suggests that the Chief Data Officer role should grow beyond “data” by taking inventory of the key algorithm assets in the enterprise.

CIO’s Role in Digital Transformation

The keynote ended with some key advice from Gartner VP Mary Mesaglio on success in digital transformation. The CIO has to end “cloud fear” and “legacy fatalism”, make innovation a core competency, and take steps to become the CEO’s “trusted ally” in digital transformation.

My next few posts will summarize some of my key learnings from the conference and highlight some of my social activity. Tweets below are from the opening keynote.