Developing a Digital Mindset

by Tsedal Neeley and Paul Leonardi

WHEN THIERRY BRETON took over as CEO of the French IT services company Atos, in 2008, he knew that a massive and immediate digital transformation was necessary. Annual revenue had increased nearly 6% during the Great Recession, to $6.2 billion, but Atos wasn’t growing as fast as its competitors were. The company suffered from siloed business and functional groups, had limited pooling of global resources, and needed more innovation throughout the company. Digital transformation was the only way forward.

But what would that look like for an IT giant? Breton began by scaling and globalizing the company, which provides online transactional services, systems integration, cybersecurity, ...

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