The coffee shop was buzzing.
I was meeting my longtime friend Gagan, and we managed to find a reasonably quiet corner to settle into for what I anticipated to be a long conversation. He and I went to school together and started our supply chain careers at nearly the same time. I joined a supply chain software company while Gagan joined a large global manufacturer and quickly grew through the ranks to be the vice president of supply chain IT in his company.
Throughout our careers, we continued to meet up whenever our travels crossed paths. Gagan is typically an upbeat and optimistic person, but on this day, something was clearly weighing him down. As it turned out, it was about his job, his sense of ownership, digital transformation and his company’s supply chain. Gagan was reporting to the CIO, and the board of directors recently mandated the company embark on a digital transformation journey. As part of the initiative, Gagan’s CEO brought in a new chief digital officer (CDO) as a peer to the CIO. And that’s when Gagan’s troubles started.