I got into an interesting discussion on what is the difference between a CDO, CTO, and CIO. The initial discussion started with are all those positions required in an organization. The group eventually agreed the answer was yes. The logic was given everything we do is digital, digital needs multiple seats at the executive table. The reason for this blog article is where do these roles fit within an organization. Let’s take a step back and explained how we defined the roles.

CDO should own e-commerce, mobile environments, and technology customer outreach. In a digital product company, they own the product roadmap. The CDO is responsible for all digital customer touch points. The technology partner for the CDO is the CMO or SVP of Sales. This role should be driving the business, and be a business enabler.

CIO should own the back office technology like email, ERP, messaging, desktops, laptops, printers, networking, service desks, and traditional data centers. Typically technology organization which is the cost centers.

CTO should own the architecture and technology of the platforms. CTO is the technology partner for both the CDO and CIO. Their job should be to have uniformity, coalesce ideas across technology and work with the various stakeholders to ensure proper architecture governance (think TOGAF architecture review boards).

The group when discussing it was pretty emphatic, the CDO should report to the CEO. Now, this is where the issue with the outstanding roles breaks down. The role defined for the CIO is an operational role, making sure essential infrastructure services and users can function. The group was split 50/50, and half the group thought the CIO should report to the CDO, the other half said some other C-level executive, like the CFO or COO.

The more complicated issue is where does the CTO report. The CTO is responsible for the architecture and technology of the platform which makes them a partner of the CDO, but also owns architecture review which makes them a partner of the CIO. So where does the CTO report?

The CDO has an entirely different objective than the CIO. If the CIO reports to the CDO, it would make sense to have the CTO report there. However, what happens when the CIO doesn’t report to the CDO. What happens if the CIO reports to the COO?

After several rounds of mental gymnastics, the group agreed to coalesce around two outcomes. First, the CIO either reports to the CDO, and the CTO reports to the CDO. Basically, CTO and CIO become peers in the same organization. The other was the CIO reports to the CTO and both the CTO and CDO report to the CEO.