Driving Digital Strategy: A Guide to Reimagining Your Business

Disruption and transformation get a lot of hype and for good reason. Digital technologies have disrupted entire industries and incumbents have often struggled in this new world. Typical approaches used by legacy players such as using technology to improve efficiency, encouraging business units to do digital experiments, or launching independent units to spur innovation have met with limited success. These players have to strengthen their core and build for the future at the same time. It is like changing the engine of a plane while it is flying. Based on almost ten years of research, this book provides a framework for companies to reimagine their business. Using rich case studies and rigorous research, it shows how the rules of business have changed and why it is no longer enough for firms to be better or cheaper to gain competitive advantage. These new rules make it essential for companies to reexamine four fundamental aspects of their business to thrive in the digital era—their strategy, value chain, customer engagement, and organization structure. Done right, digital technology can be a tremendous opportunity for established players as demonstrated by Best Buy, New York Times, Weather Company, and others.