There are many vice president-level automation jobs in the market, and you might even be wondering, “Isn’t this the CIO’s job or the CDO’s?” While both positions deal with tech and the position of chief digital officer (CDO) was created to bring in new digital solutions, according to Pradeep Aradhya, CEO of Novus Laurus, neither role is focused on the strategy of automation. It is possible that the CDO’s job could be redefined to include automation, but visionary companies should avoid the CDO quagmire where a C-level position has a little budget and no revenue responsibilities and is just about writing requirements. So let’s take a look at why consider creating a Chief Automation Officer (CAO) role.
Birthing this role with the right responsibilities from the get-go could cause not only faster, less expensive processes to be realized but also pave the path to greater revenue and higher margins. Opportunities that are made available from simply saving manual effort in repetitive processes often stand ignored due to lack of ownership.
Keep in mind that the core objective for the CAO should be to connect and integrate RPA and AI via a network of IPAs to drive inter-departmental efficiencies, company differentiation, and revenue. True transformation for a company lies in automating the connection between back-end and front-end processes so that teams can analyze and increase speed to market, revenue, and margin in near-real-time.
Every company attempts to increase revenue and margin while decreasing the cost of doing business. The CAO could connect the various indicators and processes within the company for near-real-time, companywide network analysis by creating an actionable dashboard that shows cross-department gating factors and opportunities and where to refocus personnel, procurement, inventory, sales initiatives, etc.
As a result, revenue and margins could be increased by cross-selling leftover inventory, coupled with products or services that are in demand due to market change. Automated solutions could help increase the velocity of business because they can help expedite customer processes through automated workflows and escalating to humans as necessary. Internal cost efficiencies based on optimized human effort in warehousing, manufacturing, storefront, and customer services can be identified and implemented. Ongoing automation and data insights across the company could make it easier to justify a change to the workforce and to the board.
That’s why visionary companies and leaders who have been considering deep automation could recognize these strategic impacts by creating a Chief Automation Officer (CAO) role.
