Why Digital Transformation Must Be a CEO-Led Strategic Priority

It is a leadership agenda touching customer service, operations, decision-making and value creation. That matters because the expensive part is rarely buying the technology. It is forcing the business to decide what the technology is actually supposed to fix.

The message arrives alongside a recent African SAP User Group roundtable in Windhoek, reported by New Era Live, where executives and consultants made much the same point from a more operational angle. AI, cloud and enterprise software do not create value by merely existing. A boardroom can approve a platform in an afternoon. It cannot automate poor processes into competence.

Strategy first, software second

The MyJoyOnline analysis, attributed to Ernest De-Graft Egyir, CEO adviser, thought leader and founding CEO of Chief Executives Network Ghana, places the burden squarely on the CEO. Leadership must provide the vision, impose investment discipline and lead the organisation through the change.

That is not a revolutionary thesis. It is simply the thesis most companies prefer to avoid.

The practical test is straightforward: identify a business problem before selecting a technology solution. The source recommends that organisations integrate technology with customer and operational priorities, make digital transformation a standing strategic priority, review digital maturity regularly and require measurable business outcomes from technology investments.

“Measurable” is doing a lot of work there. It should. A digital programme that cannot explain which process it improves, whose friction it removes or what outcome it changes is not transformation. It is a budget line with better branding.

For CEOs, the immediate exercise is equally plain: choose one business process that could be significantly improved through digital transformation. Not ten. One. The point is to connect the investment to a visible operational problem rather than constructing a grand technology agenda and hoping commercial logic appears later.

AI will not rescue weak foundations

The Windhoek roundtable sharpened the warning. Speakers stressed that organisations need the right data, processes and governance before implementing AI-powered solutions. That sequence is less glamorous than announcing an AI strategy, but it has the advantage of being real.

Amanda Gibbs, chief executive officer of the African SAP User Group, described the event as a forum for understanding SAP investments, sharing success stories and learning from other users. EPI-USE Labs consultant Ian van der Colf argued that businesses should treat AI as part of a broader digital transformation strategy, not as a standalone tool. In his account, enterprise resource planning systems can provide AI with business context for decision-making.

That context is the leverage. Without it, executives risk asking AI to operate on fragmented information, immature processes or unclear governance. The result may still look impressive in a demonstration. Demonstrations, of course, have never had to close the books.

Van der Colf also cautioned against assuming that moving to the cloud automatically makes a company AI-ready. Organisations should plan properly, test what fits their specific needs and take smaller steps. Jhani Coetzee, EPI-USE Labs’ BAIP lead, said many organisations remain at the beginning of their AI journey and should first identify genuine operational pain points.

Bruce Reddy, head of change and orchestration at Heineken Beverages, offered the cleanest formulation: business needs must lead functionality, with technology acting as an enabler. That distinction is the dividing line between disciplined transformation and executive hubris.

What the market should watch

The broader cluster of reporting includes a forthcoming digital-transformation event for the banking industry in 2026, as well as a report that Dabur India has partnered with Accenture to accelerate AI-driven digital transformation. The available material does not provide further details on either development, so the sensible conclusion is limited: digital transformation remains an active agenda across industries, while the quality and substance of individual initiatives still require scrutiny.

For CEOs and investors, the questions are therefore more useful than the slogans:

• What specific customer or operational problem is being addressed?
• Does the organisation have the data, processes and governance to support the proposed system?
• Can management define the business outcome it expects?
• Is the company testing a focused use case, or purchasing a mirage at enterprise scale?
• Who owns the result once the implementation team leaves?

Executives tracking technology exposure beyond conventional enterprise systems may also want a separate view of token and altcoin analysis, particularly where digital assets enter the conversation around corporate strategy and investment risk.

The serious transformation agenda is not about owning more software. It is about making the business answer harder questions, earlier. Technology can amplify discipline. It can also amplify confusion. Guess which one gets more expensive.