How to close the digital leadership gap

The 2017 New Rules for the Digital Age report from Deloitte found that only 5 percent of the companies surveyed said they have strong digital leadership development programs and a clear majority (65 percent) said they have no significant program to drive digital leadership skills. Josh Bersin, a principal at the Bersin by Deloitte research group, says the challenge is that companies don't realize how much more complicated digital transformation is than simply acquiring new technology. "Digital technology is easy to buy, but once you turn it on it changes the way you work and how you deliver products and services," Bersin told CIO.com. "From the CIO's perspective, it may seem relatively easy to implement artificial intelligence (AI), social media and other new technology, but these things have a disruptive impact on the workplace." For example, the study found that companies feel 31 percent "less ready" to redesign their organization around digital business models than they did last year.