Meet the transformational CIOs who are currently leading their businesses into the digital future.
Explore their most important initiatives, leadership goals, and how they see their roles evolving in the near future.
This time, in CIO Insights, we feature Jakob Andersen from SOS International.
The key is releasing people’s creativity
As EVP CIO in SOS International, Jakob Andersen focuses on building an environment where teams can unfold their potential, learn from failure, and deliver innovative solutions – proving that transformation succeeds when leadership prioritizes people as much as technology.
In just over a year, Jakob Andersen has hit the ground running at SOS International, driving a fast-moving digital transformation while uniting IT, people, and a clear strategic direction, ensuring that technology not only consolidates legacy systems but actively enables the business to move forward:
“SOS International is a company built from several strong business divisions focusing on Mobility and Travelcare across units located in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. A few years ago, the management team set a clear direction: to become one company, moving in one direction. That means we can’t talk about a business strategy without also talking about how IT supports it. My role has been to unify IT to support that strategy. But unifying isn’t just technological consolidation, it’s also transformation. Our customers expect instant responses when something happens – whether you’re stuck with your car or need help abroad. That means digitalisation isn’t optional. It’s a prerequisite for both customer experience and efficiency.”
You can’t just turn off the lights while you fix things
Like many others, SOS International has a mix of self-built and legacy systems across the business units. So, Jakob and his team are cleaning up and consolidating with one hand, driving digitalisation with the other – and, if they had a third hand, setting a clear overall IT direction:
“You can’t just turn off the lights while you fix things. So, it’s like performing heart surgery while running. The only way to make that work is by having great people – colleagues who go the extra mile and an executive team that understands this isn’t a quick fix. We can’t stop serving customers while we modernise. The key is to find ways to link the transformation we must go through with the consolidation we need to achieve. Technology will always be an enabler for us – not a choice. The question isn’t whether to transform, but how to influence the direction of the transformation.”
Lately, the IT ambitions have been turned up at SOS International, with AI becoming an enabler of transformation across the organisation:
“We’re already using AI, so for us it’s not a question of whether to start, but how to scale it. In the beginning, it’s primarily about supporting employees – making them more efficient and extending what each person can do. It’s an extra arm, not a replacement. However, where we had to slow down a bit is in how quickly we can bring the entire IT organisation together around one shared goal. It takes time to build a new foundation and to define clear roles, responsibilities, and our operating model for IT.”
To Jakob, that also means strengthening the foundation they build AI upon:
“When you start integrating AI into your processes and automated decisions, you also need to be much stronger on data literacy and quality. Fortunately, we have a strong finance function that has built real data discipline. So, our challenge isn’t to create more data – it’s to spread the competence and culture of working with data across the organisation. AI is only as good as the data foundation beneath it. Luckily, we have a solid starting point. The next step is to make data capabilities more widespread, not centralised.”
“It’s always a balance between innovation and compliance”
Teamwork in the IT department and across SOS International, as well as strong mandates from management, are the other part of the transformation foundation:
“To avoid AI becoming just an IT exercise, we’ve set up an AI Committee across the organisation. It’s about prioritisation and ownership – deciding where AI can really create business value. I’m lucky to have executive colleagues who understand that exponential technologies tend to be overrated in the short term and underrated in the long term. That said, there’s always impatience: how do we actually make it happen?”
As a clear example of AI enabling the business, Jakob points to SOS International’s alarm centre, which handles cases on behalf of insurance companies:
“A case handler typically has 30 seconds after each call to document what happened before taking the next one – so documentation quality can vary. With AI, we will be able to use voice-to-text and auto-summarisation to document conversations automatically. That’s not science fiction; it’s out-of-the-box technology today. But it’s about using it responsibly, especially when data must be handled securely. As a subcontractor to insurance companies, we must comply with strict data and security regulations. These companies are themselves under financial regulation, so the bar for our compliance is also very high.”
Jakob also keeps a close eye on how SOS International maintains a balance between innovation, compliance, and what could be called “dependencies due diligence”:
“We want to use cloud-based AI tools, but at the same time, we must ensure data is handled responsibly and securely. It’s always a balance between innovation and compliance. We must be realistic about how deeply rooted the dependencies are and how long it will take to reduce it. Meanwhile, having clear foundational agreements and governance around data handling is basic hygiene now.”
It’s not about preventing every single attack. It’s about being able to recover fast
Another part of basic IT hygiene is maintaining a high level of cybersecurity awareness in a company where the alarm centres employ seasonal workers:
“That means we constantly have new people joining, and they must quickly understand that our security standards, so to speak, are different from what applies on their personal computers. Cybersecurity is not about philosophy; it’s about concrete discipline. The biggest vulnerability, in general, is people – someone clicking the link. Awareness and continuous training are key. Another important part of our protection is to understand that it’s not primarily about preventing every single attack – that’s unrealistic. It’s about being able to recover quickly when an attack happens.”
The whole security mindset at SOS International is also part of a very deliberate strategy:
“We integrate security thinking into transformation – not as a separate track. If you split it out, you’ll always end up underfunding it, because security rarely has an immediate business payoff. But if you design it into architecture and processes, the impact is much greater. No doubt, boards and management have become better at prioritising cybersecurity, but the real effect comes when it’s part of everyday decision-making – when security by design is part of how we build.”
Leadership starts with transparency
Leading a digital transformation also means Jakob has to lead in a fast-changing and challenging reality – and across the organisation and generations of employees:
“For me, leadership starts with transparency about the world we operate in and the changes that affect us. The world isn’t standing still, and neither can we. The traditional model of leadership no longer applies. You need an organisation and teams that can take ownership, make decisions, and have the safety to experiment and learn. Failure is often seen as something negative, but I see it as learning. I think that especially the younger generations are really good at embracing that mindset. They are direct – they’ll tell you if something doesn’t work for them. That’s great feedback, not defiance. But they sometimes expect progress faster than reality allows, so part of leadership is helping them stay patient without killing their drive. They learn incredibly fast and sometimes their problem-solving skills benefit from the fact that they haven’t learned all the ‘old ways’. The challenge is helping them avoid becoming speed-blind and ensuring their skills connect to real business value.”
To Jakob, leadership is also about creating the right environment for the team to succeed – much like a conductor in an orchestra:
“Every musician has their own interpretation of the score. The task is to create a symphony – not uniformity, but harmony. When I look back, I don’t think I’ve had one single defining moment as a leader, but instead several situations where teams have really succeeded. It’s not about being the clever leader who points at the problem and tells others how to fix it. It’s about releasing people’s creativity. The moment where you can see them shine because they’ve cracked something difficult together – that’s when you know you’ve created the right environment.”
Besides inspiration from his team cracking digital transformation nuts, Jakob also values the CIO Transformation Board:
“In the network, you get honest, qualified sparring from people who face the same challenges. There’s a level of trust in the group that allows for real, honest conversations. I often look to that network to sense the bigger shifts – the tectonic plates, if you will. It helps me test my thinking in a safe space with people who are both knowledgeable and free of bias.”
Cooking isn’t a project – it’s how I recharge
That kind of reflection also matters on a personal level:
“I’ve worked quite a bit with personal development, trying to understand how I act and what I bring with me. I come from a generation where you just keep going, and you don’t ask for help. Becoming aware of that pattern has been important and is something I’ll continue working on.
Challenges often arise that require focused time and reflection on how best to address them. When that happens, and I need to clear my head, I go into the kitchen. My creative space is cooking. It’s tactile, it’s sensory, and it’s something I can completely immerse myself in. Cooking isn’t a project – it’s how I recharge. Another way to absorb discussions and settle is to get on the bike and spend a few hours exercising in nature.”
The CIO Transformation Board
In the Danish ICT Industry Association (IT-Branchen), we have the CIO Transformation Board, which brings together the most visionary CIOs from Denmark’s large and medium-sized companies. These are CIOs from businesses where digitalization is a strategic part of the business — but where there is also a desire to do more than just digitalize.
We aim not only to highlight Denmark’s most talented CIOs and share experiences and best practices across industries, but also to set the agenda in the media and with politicians regarding Denmark’s and the business sector’s digital future.
The CIO Transformation Board is created for those who also want to help find the new balance between people and technology. For those who have a stance and want to help influence our green transition, address the skills shortage, and strengthen growth in Denmark.
