The Digital Transformation Journey: Where are you?
Several members of LinkedIn have commented recently that digital transformation is largely marketing hype. I feel compelled to respond. The term is certainly widely used and therefore, inevitably misused. Despite this, if you accept the following definition provided by i-SCOOP, digital transformation represents something significant and real.
“Digital transformation is the profound and accelerating transformation of business activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact across society in a strategic and prioritized way.”
Based on the examples of digital transformation provided by Tom Goodwin, it is clear that industries and entire business models are being fundamentally changed forever. “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.”
With “digital” being modern, popular and attractive, perhaps the “hype” criticism comes from a perception that many suppliers are rebranding their products and services without a significant change in their offerings or without them having an impact which is truly transformational.
Furthermore, apart from the widely-cited examples above, many consultancies and technology providers struggle to present in public more than a handful of concrete case studies which are transformational. I know that more examples exist (but are not presented in public) and will emerge in the coming years. Innovations often take longer than expected to fully express themselves.
While at IBM in 2004, I co-authored a book, with Professor Merlin Stone, on business transformation entitled, “Business Solutions On Demand”. We described best practices and examples related to delivering high-end integrated “business solutions” and emerging models for delivering on demand (often cloud) services.
