Extra-condensed knowledge

This is a container of exceptional golden knowledge, supported by research and experiences, about digital transformation problems, risks, challenges, opportunities and solutions.
By 2021, if you exclude the “born digital” and the obvious hi-tech companies, few have become digital businesses.

For nearly a decade most large organizations have espoused digital business strategies.

Digital transformation is costly, difficult and the required investment may be more urgently needed elsewhere in the short-term.

Businesses today face a digital catch-22. Unless they succeed at digital transformation, they will become irrelevant.

For organizations already on the journey, only a whole organization approach will succeed.

People are crucial, as is transformative leadership, a digital talent mindset and becoming an organization that attracts digital talent.
There is no technology – let alone a disparate set of technologies – that is a silver bullet.
To succeed at digital transformation the whole of the business needs to be involved. It requires radical redesign, then deployment, of business models, activities, processes, and competencies to fully leverage the opportunities that digital technologies can offer.

Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image

Condensed knowledge

As I’ve found in research for my latest book, there are complex reasons why digital transformation can be so slow and the likelihood of failure is five times more than that of success. It reflects how “siloed” many organizations have become over the last 20 years.
My work on global digital management with John Hindle and Mary Lacity suggests that those organizations that succeed at digital transformation come from sectors and regions across the world and are not limited to the obvious hi-tech US and Chinese firms.

What distinguishes those that succeed is that they invest early in digital talent.
They build a technology platform – an integrated combination of digital capabilities.
This gives them agility, speed, first-mover and other business opportunities.
They can innovate when it comes to new digital products and business models, and they are able to establish new digital capabilities and businesses through acquisitions and mergers.

Category 2: The Big Picture of the Digital Age

[genioux fact produced, deduced or extracted from Forbes]

Type of essential knowledge of this “genioux fact”: Essential Analyzed Knowledge (EAK).

Type of validity of the "genioux fact".

Inherited from sources + Supported by the knowledge of one or more experts + Supported by research.

Authors of the genioux fact

Fernando Machuca

References

How To Succeed At Digital Transformation, Leslie Willcocks, London School of Economics, January 29, 2021, Forbes.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Professor Leslie Willcocks

London School of Economics and Political Science (@LSEManagement)

Emeritus Professor of Work, Technology and Globalisation

Department of Management

Professor Willcock's major research interests include service automation, robotic process automation, cognitive automation of knowledge work, artificial intelligence, digital transformation and emerging technologies including cloud, social media, analytics, mobile, blockchain, robotics, internet of things, outsourcing, IT management, large scale complex projects, eg, CRM, ERP, organisational change and IT measurement. He is also engaged in looking at technology in globalisation and the strategic use of IT, IT leadership, IT enabled organisational change as well as business process outsourcing and offshoring, organisational behaviour, social theory and philosophy for information systems, and public sector IT Policy.