Alas, the talent gap in this sector is a critical challenge for companies seeking transformation. PwC’s most recent Digital IQ study found that lack of properly skilled teams was considered the number one hurdle to achieving expected results from digital technology investments; 61 per cent of respondents identified it as an existing or emerging barrier. In another telling finding, the survey revealed that 46 per cent of CDOs are external hires.
Bridging the talent gap will require companies to identify the types of skills they need and those they lack, and to create a talent strategy that will ensure that their people can put the digital agenda into practice, claim the consultants. This will include some combination of training and hiring, as well as bringing the requisite skills in-house through acquisition, they find. Leaders will also need to be aware of cultural inclinations to keep things the way they’ve always been - a mind-set that can slow adoption of new technology-initiatives.
The talent challenge was a common topic among the CDOs the consultants spoke with. In some industries, the need for digital talent is complicated by the need to pair it with specific industry knowledge. At Blue Shield of California, a San Francisco based healthcare provider, Todd Walthall, senior vice president of customer experience, says his difficulty hasn’t been finding talented developers, but rather creating the right mix of technologists and people with experience in healthcare.
Another industry struggling to find enough talent is the car industry working on driverless automobiles, according to executive search firm Korn Ferry. Carmakers and tech firms alike are spending billions to come out with the right technology. “And for the most part, the money isn’t going to parts or engines, but almost entirely toward attracting top-notch PhDs and software wizards. Call it the new battleground for talent - one of the biggest ever”, say the headhunters. Toyota alone is spending 1 billion dollars to build a staff of 200 and create a research institute focused on driverless tech. Uber recruited about 50 Carnegie Mellon University professors and grad students to join its research centre for self-driving vehicles.
By some estimates, the auto industry has spent 3 to 5 billion dollars to lock up the top tech performers in the driverless space. Not included the millions more that technology firms are spending to develop the skills of their own engineers. In demand are highly qualified computer scientists, software engineers and roboticists, say the headhunters.
Read more on Strategy Business and Kornferry