Alexander Loth - Decisively Digital

1 Cover

2 Title Page Decisively Digital From Creating a Culture to Designing Strategy Alexander Loth

3 Introduction Introduction Decisively Digital: From Creating a Culture to Designing Strategy is intended to be an overview of various state-of-the-art topics that are essential for organizations that want to transform and go digital. This book contains 24 interviews with executives, entrepreneurs, and researchers, as well as two real-life customer examples. My hope is that you will find useful ideas and inspiration for understanding the current trends and how to effectively establish a digital strategy that drives success in your organization, just as I have seen with the many organizations that I have had the privilege of working with over recent years. The book should be of interest to different audiences: Chief information officers (CIOs), chief digital officers (CDOs), and any executive who crafts their organization's digital journey Professionals who want to understand how technology can improve their work Generally, anybody with interest in modern technology and a desire to understand how this blends into business To follow the contents of this book, the reader requires neither a background in mathematics nor any programming experience. Book Structure Book Structure This book is structured in six parts. Part I: Digital Strategy, provides a framework to identify requirements and define a strategy tailored to your individual organization. Each of the remaining parts is dedicated to a specific strategic topic: Part II: Digital Culture and Modern Work Part III: Data Democracy and Analytics Part IV: Big Data Processing and Cloud Computing Part V: Artificial Intelligence Part VI: Process Automation, Blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) The strategic topic parts include interviews as well as real-life customer examples. About the Interviews About the Interviews All interviews in this book have some questions in common. The interviews start with personal questions to set the stage, and they conclude with questions for advice that you might immediately apply. Most questions are, however, tailored to catch the most relevant insights and ideas. These ideas serve as a toolkit for assembling your own digital strategy. During the interviews, I also received counterquestions. I have answered the most common of them in the Appendix, “Reciprocity: Answering Some of My Own Questions.” Companion Website Companion Website All amendments, updates and recommended reading materials will be posted to www.decisivelydigital.org/ . Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. — Arthur C. Clarke

4 Part I: Digital Strategy Part I Digital Strategy Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Strategy Chapter 1 Introduction to Digital Strategy The digital age is here to stay. Unfortunately, many organizations do not take advantage of its possibilities. Every industry is facing transformational change right now. And for many organizations, how they defined success yesterday is not how they are defining it today. For example, while growth may have been the only goal in the past, other metrics, such as a sustainability score, have become essential nowadays. Having endless possibilities (and new competitive challenges), organizations are asking themselves how their businesses must evolve to survive and thrive. The answer to this question is digital strategy! A digital strategy will lead the way for your organization to become part of the digital age, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “The changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril,” says Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. “My concern, however, is that decision-makers are too often caught in traditional, linear (and nondisruptive) thinking or too absorbed by immediate concerns to think strategically about the forces of disruption and innovation shaping our future.” 1 Organizations that have already embarked on their transformation journey are seeing the advantages. Disney, for example, produced hand-drawn movies in the past, relying on a very costly distribution system. Today Disney has gone completely digital, from movie production to the screen, leveraging the entire value chain. Disney's new digital endpoint, the streaming service Disney+, is even outperforming its own forecasts. 2 With cloud-powered technologies, all organizations have access to AI-infused tools and modern work capabilities tailored to their needs. With scalability of implementation and speed of adoption, these organizations are seeing increased cost savings and more productive employees across all departments. This is called digital maturity and is basically the sum of digital capabilities that are available in the organization. Every organization in every industry will increasingly need to level up their digital maturity to be successful and grow. Strategic Topics Strategic Topics An organization's digital strategy is characterized by the application of new technologies to existing business activities and a focus on the enablement of new digital capabilities. These new digital capabilities can be clustered into five strategic topics (which form the structure of this book). Modern Work ( Part II ): How does technology change the way we work and communicate, and how does this change interfere with culture and strategy? Data Democracy and Analytics ( Part III ): How can every person achieve more by being enabled to access, understand, and communicate data? Big Data Processing and Cloud Computing ( Part IV ): How do we retrieve, store, and process vast amounts of data? Artificial Intelligence (AI) ( Part V ): How do intelligent agents take actions that maximize the chances of successfully achieving our business goals? Process Automation, Blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT) ( Part VI ): How does direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems result in efficiency improvements, economic benefits, and reduced human exertions? Data is treated as a key strategic asset, and organizations are committed to realizing value from it. Therefore, data democracy and analytics and big data processing and cloud computing can be collectively referred to as data strategy . Culture Culture Henry Ford said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This statement has probably never been as relevant as it is today. Many employees started working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic as this book was being written. Micromanagement, which is characterized by mistrust, became obsolete, giving rise to a new, digital culture of trustful cooperation. Crafting and fostering culture within an organization is essential. Culture supports the digital strategy, enabling and empowering all people in an organization during transformational change. Organizations are best fitted to go through a transformation when employees are unified and working with shared values and ideas. They have a culture that keeps their team connected, and an organizational mindset rooted in flexibility and openness: openness to new ideas, technologies, and digital capabilities. Organizations whose culture accepts the diversity of personalities, abilities, ideas, and those approaches that are requirements for driving an organization forward are those that do best with adopting new digital capabilities. Culture is not mapped 1:1 to a single strategic topic. Culture spans multiple strategic topics, which also influence each other, as shown in Figure 1.1 . Figure 1.1 Strategic topics and culture Impact Impact Every organization has a set of core competencies and unique assets.