In the age of technology, where integrating advances inartificial intelligence, cloud services, and data-generated insights, identifying the best CEO for your company requires a comprehensive strategy that addresses not only what’s important for your business today, but more importantly what’s going to drive your business in the future. The traditional skill sets of leadership, business knowledge, and salesmanship may no longer be enough, as technology will may well have a larger impact on the business’ future.
When undertaking an executive search for a new CEO, it’s essential to recognize that while many good candidate recruits have experience in operations and finance, they lack the depth of knowledge and experience in technology. When looking across skill sets of digital transformation and artificial intelligence, those skills are often severely lacking. While most larger companies have a technology strategy and work closely with their CIOs and technology staff, the majority are not nearly current enough when it comes to AI and technology.
However, the reality is that almost every business is going to have to recognize and understand the value that AI and deep technology will have on its future growth. Identifying top CEO candidates who have that depth of knowledge is more important than ever. A recent Gartner Survey found that more than half of the CIOs they interviewed would be implementing an AI strategy within the next year. That requires a significant new investment in deep technology skills across the organization, beginning with the CEO.
When identifying the top CEO candidates for your company, here are four important technology leadership questions that need to be asked. Not having the right answers may not be disqualifying for a strong candidate, but it will provide a roadmap of what skills and knowledge that candidate will need to quickly acquire to leverage deep technology for the organization.
4 Important Technology Leadership Questions:
- In your previous roles at other companies, what advanced technology programs, including artificial intelligence, did you have running in your overall business operations?
- What type of learning supervision did these programs receive, and how involved with the CEO candidate?
- For each program, did the CEO candidate implement a risk management component and identify a business “owner”?
- What was the result of each AI program? Would the CEO candidate describe each as a success, a work in progress, or a failure, and why?
Asking the right questions will help ensure that the best CEO candidates are in the mix for your company’s needs both today and five years down the road. Having a strategic partner like Dinte that understands the skills it required of today’s CEOs is a good place to start.