(2013-04-01) Chief Digital Officer

Stowe Boyd wonders whether the CIO, CTO, and CMO will end up reporting to the CDO (Chief Digital Officer).

Kim Nash gives more details (from the CIO perspective). *In many more cases, however, the CDO is an executive from outside the company--and outside IT--who parachutes in at the behest of a CEO who is adamant about corporate transformation. Usually reporting to the CEO, the CDO gets the authority to rearrange staff and request funding to launch big plans... the CDO is handed the keys to drive the change the CEO wants but isn't getting from the established hierarchy. Which means the future that elite CIOs thought they had sewn up--strategy setting and entrepreneurship--could be stolen.

Like other retailers, BestBuy sees a future in Omni-Channel shopping (Clicks And Mortar), where customers move with ease between the physical, Web and mobile realms to browse and buy. To make that happen, BestBuy last March created a new position: president of digital, global marketing and strategy. *