Categories: Articles

Digital Transformation And The Big Bet

Is digital transformation the future of work… or just a bet that companies are making?

Say what you will about events like Davos (and, yes, there are many people and media who are quick to criticize the event), there are often moments that provide a batch of insights that make it worth our while to stop, watch, take notes and then reflect upon. So, here’s the question: What big bets are companies making in the digital transformation of their business models and organizational structures?

It’s a big question.

Everyone has digital transformation on the brain… and they should. I often argue that digital transformation is much more of an internal philosophy (that is leadership led) and internal execution, before it’s something that touches a brand’s consumers. It’s difficult to say that your organization is “digital first” or leading the way in “digital transformation,” if your leaders are not pushing the organization in this direction, or when the tools that the employees are using to build the business are legacy. I’ve been in the room of many corporations who are talking up business transformation, while behind the scenes they’re using Lotus Notes, older BlackBerry devices, and frown up things like social media and mobile device usage at the office. It’s a shame.

Back to Davos.

Last week, the World Economic Forum posted a session from Davos 2016 titled, The Digital Transformation of Industries. In this session moderator, Rich Lesser (Global Chief Executive Officer and President at Boston Consulting Group), Marc Benioff (CEO at Salesforce), Klaus Kleinfeld (CEO at Alcoa), Jean-Pascal Tricoire (CEO at Schneider), Bernard Tyson (CEO at Kaiser Permanente), and Meg Whitman (CEO at Hewlett Packard). On the agenda? What is digital transformation, how do companies make the right investment decision behind it and – most importantly – what does a digital culture look like and how does a brand go about designing one?

Watch this: World Economic Forum - Davos 2016 – The Digital Transformation of Industries.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.