Digital Transformation

a June 2013 presentation, George Colony, the CEO of Forrester Research addressed top-CEO’s this way:

“If you can’t understand the new world of digital, fire yourself. Build an executive team that is digital first (when problems arise, the first solution is always digital). Make sure there is a techie on the board of directors. If the board has a low digital IQ, the company will have a low digital IQ. Figure out where the business will be most disrupted, and send the digital troops there. Don’t spread them everywhere -- go where the fight is.”

Whatever the examples might be, there is a simple logic to be observed

Ask yourself this question following the logic above: would you rather spend that 5% yourself in a pre-emptive move to stay important and to take the lead in your own transformation? The cash result for your shareholders will be the same, they will have less money in the course of the next decade. Yet the outcome is entirely different. In the one scenario they are losing their money to the challengers in the process of failed transformation. In the other scenario, they are investing that same money in rebuilding their own future

Transforming into a glass house organization brings along both challenges and opportunities.

What he wanted to say was that the rest of the world should take the US newspaper industry as an example and an early warning system. What was happening with them was very likely also about to happen to any other newspaper in the world

The first step in the methodology is getting everyone on board. It is crucial that your stakeholders understand that the world around them is changing. If this is not the case, you need to create the necessary insights to open up their eyes and show them the light

On the contrary, it provides your organization with a powerful insight in your weak and strong elements and it will allow you to make clear choices to develop one or more well-defined areas.

Culture really is about the attitude of your company and the people behind it. Every company is different, depending on maturity, experience, shareholder, market, history, staff, management team. Some companies turn out to be lively organizations, open for new ideas and very keen on innovation

If you can’t understand the new world of digital, fire yourself. Build an executive team that is digital-first (when problems arise, the first solution is always digital). Make sure there is a techie on the board of directors. If the board has a low digital IQ, the company will have a low digital IQ”
Without digital leadership, it will be impossible to deal with digital transformation, especially because the transformation is not just a one-off thing, it will be a permanent cycle of responding to disruption and changing accordingly, just to be ready in time to face new disruption. Having a special taskforce that transforms you once will not get the job done. You need a company that is flexible enough to be in a constant state of change

So please, apply this test to your company and if you feel that your management team has grown too old, recognize it and act. There is no reason why people that are thirty do not make good managers. You need a couple of them in your senior management team as they will bring younger DNA into the company and they might even inspire the older members to become mentally younger