After a year in the chief digital officer spot at Southern Cross Austereo, having taken over from Clive Dickens, Vijay Solanki is set to leave the business as the first step of SCA's digital transformation is now complete.
Tasked to drive digital transformation at SCA, having taken over from director of digital of innovation Dickens, who left for Seven West Media, Solanki tells AdNews that his core “job is done” as he embarks on the next step of his career.
Solanki said: “We delivered some great digital results like the digital audience being twice the size of any radio competitor, but essentially my job is done in that respect so I am now keen to find the next challenge in Australia.”
In a memo to staff SCA CEO Grant Blackley said SCA’s digital strategy was to focus on transforming the entire business rather than just operating a silo digital function. To achieve this, six months ago it started the process by moving digital sales into the sales function enabling more sales teams to trade digital.
In parallel, it also moved digital content back into the content team - building a culture where all content teams “recognise that content creation includes website, social, video content in addition to audio content”.
“I would like to thank Vijay for driving the new digital strategy, rebuilding the infrastructure, the creation of new products and launching our data function,” Blackley said.
“We have made strong progress in our digital transformation and we are on track to fully integrate digital back into the business.”
He said the next phase of this development is to create a new technology leadership role overseeing digital technology, digital product development and data analytics along with its ICT functions, and its new head of digital and information technology will lead the existing digital and ICT leadership teams and work closely with director of engineering and technology.
This person is yet to be appointed.
Solanki said he was proud to have played his part in driving digital transformation as part of the SCA digital journey.
“The strategy was always about enabling the entire business to step up in digital. Over the last year we have built great products including RadioApp, mobile apps and websites, products like Facebook Live and initiatives like Omny Studio and A2X,” Solanki said.
Before joining SCA Solanki was senior director, global digital innovation at Philips in Amsterdam, having had more than 20 years of experience in business and 15 years in digital leadership.
Solanki will continue his role with SCA to support the transition for the coming months before handing over the reins.
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