Today we are living at a time when all the traditional rules of business seem to have changed in a big way due to the penetration of digital technologies as well as threats attached with it. These in turn are forcing the business models and processes to go through a constant chan Like we see in other fields like that of teaching and advising business leaders from companies around the world, it is repeatedly heard the same urgent question: How do we adapt and transform for the digital age? Businesses founded before the rise of the Internet face a stark challenge: Many of the fundamental rules and assumptions that governed and grew their businesses in the pre-digital era no longer hold. The good news is that change is possible. Pre-digital businesses are not dinosaurs doomed to extinction.
Here we get into a through discussion of the phenomenon of digitalisation: What separates businesses that manage to adapt and thrive in a digital world from those who fail? In pursuing the answers to this question, it’s a privilege to draw on the insights, perspectives, and questions of an amazing range of executives and entrepreneurs, both through my consulting and keynote speaking, and in my Columbia Business School executive programs on digital marketing and digital business strategy.
Extensive studies and research work is conducted on big data and marketing metrics, mobile shopping behaviors, the Internet of Things, and the future of data sharing. Alongwith it the experience of convening C-suite leaders from global brands, technology firms, media companies, and fast-growing startups to get into this discussion of newly formed and constantly changing digital business landscape, one central insight that has emerged and shaped the development of this entire topic: Digitalisation is not about technology- it is about strategy and new ways of thinking.
Digitalisation requires businesses to develop their strategic mindset much more than development of the IT infrastructure.
This truth is apparent in the changing roles of technology leadership within business. A Chief Information Officer’s traditional role has been to use technology to optimize processes, reduce risks, and better run the existing business.
But the emerging role of a Chief Digital Officer is much more strategic, focused on using technology to reimagine and reinvent the core business itself.
A business strategy which is holistic on its view is much more useful for digitalisation. Another title named “The Network Is Your Customer”, was focused on the impact of digital technologies on customers-their behaviors, interactions, and relationships with businesses and organizations of all kinds. In the present task it is being looked at five domains of business strategy: customers, competition, data, innovation, and value.
The Digital Transformation Playbook focuses on practical tools and frameworks that readers can apply in making decisions and formulating strategies for their own business, no matter their size or industry. The text have been packed with case studies that illustrate the concepts and illuminate the strategies.
The greater goal of this present project is the hope that you, the reader, will bring the playbook into action by applying its lessons and discovering the next stage of value creation and growth for your business.
Due to network effects, the platform with the most current customers is often the one most likely to draw future customers. But the network of participating customers can add benefits beyond sheer numbers. The quality of goods and services customers offer is often important as well. (Etsy has built a platform for selling handmade goods by nurturing a community of craftspeople making quality goods of a kind you may not find on eBay.) The data provided by one group of customers can also increase the ability of a platform to attract customers of another group. (The amount of social, demographic, and personal-interest data that users provide to Facebook is precisely the reason the company can charge advertisers relatively high rates.)
Platform-added value: In some cases, the value provided by the various types of customers is not enough to make a platform competitive. The platform itself has to develop unique features and benefits to attract customers. Google attracts users to Android phones with its Google Now personal assistant and the seamless integration of its popular Maps, Calendar, and Gmail.
Its competitor Apple attracts users with its own software, like iTunes and the Siri personal assistant, and the unique hardware design of its iPhones. For ad-supported media platforms, the biggest area of competition is their platform-added value-that is, the content they create to attract their audience. That content may be subsidized or provided entirely free to the consumer, thanks to advertiser revenue.
Although a video channel or blog competes with its peers by trying to make attractive content, its real business model is to sell the audience to advertisers.
Would you like to read more about this topic? This book might interest you: Digitalisation.