January 3, 2014: According to Mathison, “To start the New Year off right, the most important thing a new CDO can do is to craft and deliver the digital strategy. This should be a cross-departmental blueprint with input from all key stakeholders. It must include achievable and realistic goals; identification of the tools, resources, capital and team necessary to achieve those goals; a clear definition of roles and responsibilities; and key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring your team’s performance against the goals. Once this is complete, the strategy should be clearly communicated to all involved.”

December 4, 2013: “Mathison says Chief Digital Officers can be found in every industry now. He also notes that despite the title implications, the CDO position is a business focused post, not a technical one. These people – if they are successful – will probably be running the show in three to five years. I’ve been surprised at how quickly it’s happening, Mathison predicts.”

“Mathison says Chief Digital Officers can be found in every industry now. He also notes that despite the title implications, the CDO position is a business focused post, not a technical one.”

November 13, 2013: “David Mathison, founder of the Chief Digital Officer Club, recently told the MIT Sloan Management Review that there will still be only 500 CDOs worldwide by the end of the year, although that is a big rise from the 75 or so that existed in 2011.”

November 7, 2013: “The CDO position, Mathison added, is increasingly the fast-track to the CEO seat. In 2013 alone, he said, more than seven CDOs became CEO, and more than four CDOs joined public boards. Considering there are not many CDOs around, that is a very impressive statistic, and reflects the importance of digital in business, education and our culture, Mathison said.”

November 1, 2013: “When you look at their backgrounds and skill sets, they’re coming up from entrepreneurial and managerial backgrounds, Mathison says. These people — if they are successful — will probably be running the show in three to five years. I’ve been surprised at how quickly it’s happening.”

October 11, 2013:DATA MANAGER: Pensi che il Vecchio Continente sia pronto per l’introduzione di questi professionisti? DAVID MATHISON: “Assolutamente, sì. Dall’inizio del 2013 a oggi, ci sono stati 177 nuovi assunti con il ruolo di CDO, cioè una media di uno al giorno. Settantacinque di questi erano in Europa, con una crescita che riguarda soprattutto Bulgaria, Repubblica Ceca, Danimarca, Finlandia, Francia, Germania, Olanda, Italia (con in testa le città di Milano, Roma e Monza), Serbia, Spagna, Svezia, Svizzera e Regno Unito (dove Londra ha il maggior numero di CDO in Europa).”

September 6, 2013: “Good conversation today with David Mathison at Chief Digital Officer Club http://cdoclub.com. One insight that surfaced is that CDOs are starting to be elevated to CEO roles. Its way too early to call this a trend, but there are a few reasons to think that it might become one:”

July 29, 2013: “When I started tracking this two years ago, there were 75 CDOs worldwide in major organizations,” says David Mathison, who curated the first-ever CDO Summit in February 2013. “Today there are hundreds — more than 300 at most recent count.”