Digital Transformation

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to an MIT Sloan video, “What Digital Transformation Means for Business”. It features executives from Intel, Avis (the president of Zipcar), a researcher into the topic from MIT, and a Capgemini consultant.

It’s about 45 minutes long, so allow yourself some quiet time and have a pad and pencil (or tablet) handy so you can take notes.

I found it inspiring to hear these influential leaders talk about the need for organizations to embrace disruptive technology (they mentioned cloud computing, ultramobile, advanced big data analytics, and social media).

They also emphasized that the risk of NOT embracing the technology of tomorrow, even when they are in the process of implementing the technology of today, is too great. It is critical to continue to watch and consider how the technology that appears on the horizon may affect the ability of the organization to excel.

I loved the story told by the Intel CIO of how she assigns her staff to work within the business to learn it, and then takes them back into IT so they can work on enhancing that business.

You should also listen to how Intel uses gamification to have a better handle on earnings forecasts. It was a great example of how gamification can be used as a technique for understanding and assessing risk. I have written separately about how an organization assessed risks to the success of a major software implementation by creating a stock market game around it. Individuals on the project team from IT and user departments, the consultants they engaged, and others with a stake in its success bought and sold fictional stock in the project. The stock price varied based on demand: when there was optimism, people bought stock and the price rose; when there was pessimism, people sold and the price dropped. The risk assessment considered the stock price and tried to understand why it moved.

Intel and Avis, together with Capgemini, talked about how much time executives were spending on digital transformation. Clearly, these companies (and I join them) expect leaders from the CEO on down to be spending a good amount of time looking at and considering the technology of today and tomorrow and how it can transform their business.

What do you think?

You might also consider this discussion on the battle between IT and the business for control over technology resources.

I close with my greetings to all for a healthy, prosperous, and joyous holiday season and new year.

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