4WHAT? DOING THE RIGHT THINGS INTELLIGENTLY

DIGITIZATION IS A very broad term, but a program needs structure. It’s about new ecosystems, further development of the business model, and acquiring fundamental skills.

When managers today talk about the challenges of digitization, they encounter countless definitions and completely different worldviews, and some struggle with adapting their business model. They wonder if their market will still exist tomorrow, or if they are destined to go the same way as Kodak. Others are highly focused on their business system, and wonder how IT can improve the supply chain or help them better understand their customers. Others again wonder if their IT is even capable of handling the new data streams. To develop a viable strategy, we need a common language, a common understanding, and a structure supported by all.

To this end, we introduce three levels in this book. The first level is about our future market. Are new competitors disrupting our current business model with innovative technologies? Are they upending once-irrefutable paradigms?

The second level is about whether our business model is capable of meeting the challenges. Are we grasping digital opportunities to fundamentally improve the customer experience? Are we decisively leveraging dormant efficiency potentials with digital and advanced analytics?

The third level concerns the foundation—the IT technology and the organization. Are we using state-of-the-art technologies? Are we an attractive ...

Get Digital @ Scale now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.