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 René Rasmussen from Coloplast.
Results are created through people
For Coloplast’s CIO René Rasmussen, imagination fuels his leadership mission to turn diverse team thinking into technology that creates real impact for people with intimate healthcare needs.
For more than two decades, CIO and Senior Vice President René Rasmussen have witnessed Coloplast change from a somewhat smaller, yet still large, international company of 7,000 people to a major global player in the medtech market, counting 17,000 people worldwide. A change that has also played a part in significantly evolving René’s role as a CIO over the years:
“We in DD&IT are now more than ever an enabler for achieving the goals that the business has set for itself. We are still providing operational stability, but focus has shifted from seeing technology as primarily a cost-efficiency driver to technology being something you need to succeed with your growth ambition and your focus on servicing customers in the right way.”
The shift in DD&IT’s role hasn’t shifted René and his team away from also making sure the foundation is stable:
“We don’t take our eyes off operations, because it’s great that you have ambitions, but if you don’t have a solid and well-functioning core, that will take all your focus away. If our company can’t produce, distribute or sell our products, then we don’t have a business. Enterprise platforms and architectures need to be secure, standardised, and scalable to support our primary obligation: to serve the customers. But beyond operations, we also orchestrate digital, data, and AI initiatives to ensure technology choices drive tangible business impact for Coloplast.”
Not all in from day one
The dual focus also means that, for the last ten years, Coloplast has invested heavily in the right risk management frameworks. ISO 27001, NIS2, as well as cyber, compliance, and resilience, have taken a much bigger role and a much higher place in awareness. To René, that means being very transparent about priorities:
“If you are not continuously transparent, you will have continuous noise about who’s getting what and who’s not. Because the fact of life in any IT function is that demand outstrips capacity. That’s why we strive to make planning, funding, and benefit realization visible, so that the business can see what we approve and what we retire.”
Building new IT capabilities throughout the organisation is, of course, at the top of his agenda, and, similar to other CIOs today, AI has a large role to play, though René and his team have approached AI with some caution:
“We were not all in from day one. We subscribe to the idea that there is huge opportunity, but we were focused on starting the right AI activities with a clear focus on impact and outcome. It moved so fast in the beginning that it was easy to lose sight of what we were trying to achieve with AI. So, we don’t see ourselves as first movers in AI. We’d rather see ourselves as fast followers.”
That meant that Coloplast proceeded with consideration from pilots to a broader roll-out:
“We are really focusing on adoption and measurable outcomes rather than moonshots. We’ve implemented internal AI tools, such as chatbots, AI driven translations, Avatar based training material and engines for generating clinical documentation. Our approach follows an adopt–configure–build path. In some instances, we just adopt technology, while in other instances we configure it. And in very specific instances we build bespoke solutions if it delivers real, measurable value. On top of that, we run a number of targeted automation programs, powered by productivity gains, especially in shared services. Thousands of small wins often beat one giant AI project in cost, risk, and ROI.”
“I truly believe sameness stagnates”
Leading the IT organisation in a balance between fundamental operations and digital transformation for Coloplast’s business is also a balance for René’s leadership:
“You allocate some of your capacity to run, then some to build, and then to transform. It works, but it demands leadership and a very clear view of how to manage the organisation behind that. My core belief is that results are created through people. A leader said that to me early in my career, and it has stayed with me: You can’t do anything without people.”
And not just any people. René values people who add that mental mix to his team that he sees as fundamental in order to deliver the best ideas and solutions for the company:
“I build teams based on mental diversity. It fuels healthy challenge, learning velocity, and innovation. I truly believe sameness stagnates. So, we need to have different viewpoints. There are also other diversity parameters, and mental diversity also comes from diverse experiences, education, and backgrounds. Gender, age, and ethnicity are part of your mental diversity, because that also builds into your perspectives. But what matters is that we all don’t think alike.”
With less sameness and a more diverse thinking approach on his team, Rene hopes to fulfil his real leadership mission:
“I want to enable people to do the best work of their careers, safely, proudly, and at pace. And make real change for people. With the right people, change is an enabler. With the wrong people, it becomes a barrier. That’s why the team is so important.”
Imagination is a core trait
In his own leadership, René also strives to free himself from his own preconceived notions and biases from previous experiences when trying to solve problems or challenges:
“Experience is healthy, but it is also a limitation. If you don’t question whether your experience is still applicable, you risk stagnating instead of evolving. But first and foremost, you need to understand the problem before you can address it. Then you can test your thinking with your team, peers, and experts.”
Thinking in a less predetermined or linear way is also connected to from where Rene, among other things, draws his inspiration:
“I find huge inspiration from fantasy and science fiction, which I have been reading since I was about eight years old. It’s really about philosophy, political systems, technology, and imagination grounded in reality. You can see it in everything from Gibson’s novel Neuromancer, about the bridge between man and machine, to Frank Herbert’s Dune series, which leads you to think about environmental impacts. There’s just so much inspirational thinking to find there, because it is based in imagination. And I find imagination to be a core trait in any good IT professional. But of course, it has to be grounded. Blue sky thinking is easy. Translating it into reality, something doable is the real skill.”
Making a difference is real
To find out what is doable, René finds some of the answers in the CIO Transformation Board:
“It provides an honest, peer-driven dialogue and has become a safe space. We have built trust with people on the board and we get so many perspectives on what others do, where they are headed, and what they do about what’s happening right now. It helps me to benchmark everything from operating models over funding mechanisms, to adoption roll out. It’s very inspiring.”
And inspiration is not just something René finds outside of Coloplast in network and books. Running on more than twenty years at Coloplast, he has a very clear answer as to why he still is so invested in the company:
“One of the reasons I have stayed on is that I truly believe in and get inspired by our mission. I think we all do here in Coloplast. Making a difference for people with intimate healthcare needs, that is not a plaque on the wall. It is real.”
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.
