As  2017 has started and has now entered top speed we may confidently give some predictions on what sort of executives will be the most wanted during the year. We asked our consultants and their customers about their plans for the forthcoming months and it seems that 2017 is going to be busier in some respects.

Once some answers we have, repeated and are underlined as high priority we have created a list of top 5 positions related to new technologies that are named as demand across different industries including: finance & banking, insurance, retail, FMCG, ICT, media, professional services and consulting. Here are the results of our observations:CDO (Chief Digital Officer) – This position seems to be a natural result of digital transformation that was one of the most repeatable mottos in 2016 across different industries. CDO combines business strategy based on new media with modern technologies. This is the person to know how to do business in a digital way, holding a set of competencies making him or her good potential for becoming a CEO of a modern company.

CSO (Chief Security Officer) – while the world is thrilled by recent acts of cyber attacks on – so far, an unprecedented scale, it has become clear that neither state-owned entities or the private sector are prepared to defend themselves effectively. These threads stimulate companies to revise their security policies and look for experts ready to face new challenges. New opportunities arise for IT security consulting companies that also look for practitioners.

Chief Architect – corporate architecture / business architecture – call it as you wish, but the need of alignment of strategy with innovativeness, project portfolio prioritisation, compliance, and daily business is a sign of company maturity. Looking ahead, creating a development roadmap, being consequent and also flexible is a set of competencies demanded nowadays. Such architecture is often located in IT although it could be changed in the future. For many the current challenge is to create up and running relationship between architecture PMO and innovation management.

Chief Innovation Officer – create an R&D department? a start-up collaboration hub? or perhaps work on changing the whole company culture in order to become more innovative? These questions become quite serious in some industries, as some face a crisis of their existence. Currently it is not easy for telco operators, banks, and also some IT companies that have to compete with fast growing application development communities. Thinking ahead is therefore not their add-on gadget, but really live or die business.

DPO (Data Protection Officer) – the new data protection law regulation for EU (GDPR or RODO in Polish) will come into effect in May 2018. As usual in such cases it means new business opportunities for law and consulting companies but also mandatory requirements for all industries working with personal data across the EU. DPO must be appointed by all companies offering goods or services to their customers in order to keep up to date on law regulations and procedures either in-house or in collaboration with external stakeholders.

Some demands are in line with global trends, some will vary depending on the geographical region. In Poland, where I live, e-health services for instance develop relatively slowly and 2017 may still be too early for high demand in terms of managerial competencies in this field, but it is certainly an interesting area to follow. In terms of experts it is a definitely year of big data analysts, especially data scientists combining mathematical and statistic competencies with technology awareness. Generally speaking it will be one more interesting year in software engineering what is not great news for employers, as finding good talent becomes more and more difficult. Those needs also reflect on executive-level positions, as there is increasing demand for aspiring leaders able to build and maintain teams effectively in challenging and competitive environments.

Not everyone may keep up with current requirements for technology-world executives. Should you be one of them, please don?t forget to contact Amberstone Associates. 

See TOP 2017 competencies for executive positions:

Krzysztof Puchalski is Managing Partner and CEO of Amberstone Associates and Executive Search Consultant. He has been responsible for the search of talented CIOs?, IT directors, IT managers, as well as management staff for IT companies and managers from the area connecting business and modern technologies since 2000. He assists multinational organizations in taking strategic recruitment decisions.