CIO Innovation Dinner stresses value of knowledge sharing

It was a lively dinner with speeches from Board members of Pon, Alliander and Rabobank about digital transformation and the effect on the business strategies. These were followed by discussions at the table between Board members and CIO’s of the different companies on the main challenges around digital transformation and how to tackle them.

One area of discussion was the disruption around new digital business models. It was clear that it is not easy to implement truly new and valuable business models. Taking small, incremental steps seems to be the common approach but different companies make different pragmatic choices here. Second theme was about cooperation and partnering. Who to partner with and in which geographies? How do you make sure that you are complimentary in your partnerships? And thirdly, we talked about people. About the necessity to create digital DNA in your own company. Do you prefer building these skills or buying them? These were some of the topics discussed but it was clear that digital transformation is, the hype aside, definitely a boardroom topic and that we as CIOs are seen as playing a crucial role in a successful transformation.

This CIO Platform Nederland dinner stresses the value of sharing knowledge. It offers inspiration in areas where you are searching for the right approach and it gives a sense of pride if you find out that you are actually ahead of the curve. Furthermore, research shows that sharing knowledge freely builds trust among each other which in turn improves cooperation. Especially in large organisations that can be a nice bonus.

Utrecht, May 2019
Anton Rutten, Head of IT Systems CIOO Rabobank