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The Secret To Digital Transformation In One Chart

This article is more than 4 years old.

I was lucky enough to write a Wall Street Journal and Amazon best-selling book on digital transformation. It's called The Digital Helix. Recently I've been working on a new way of looking at the next level of transformation in the world. I am essentially going to kill the book off as my cash cow so I can push the discussion even further forward with a new book, focusing on capitalism in a flat world or "Flatcap."

 

If the 28% getting digital transformation right as of now keep at it year after year for the next three years' they will have sucked up over 50% of the available growth in their segments. We will see the fastest and most sweeping shift in brands in the Fortune 500 list of all time. Just think about the nature of that statement for a moment.

 

In light of the above statement, let me give away the simplest of charts that will help you define two-thirds of your potential issues if you are a part of the 72%. The thousands of hours of in-person research and millions of dollars spent on tests, analysis and studies have at its simplest level revealed two truths.

 

Truth One – Know Where You Are In These Three Areas

There are three key components to get your organizations to digitally platform itself correctly. You have to know the drivers of market change (seven of them) and continuously design around them. You need to be incredibly self-aware about the internal challenges you face and handle each of (the seven) appropriately). Finally, you need to have adopted the seven investment components too; we call these the Digital Helix. 


There are over 143,000 combinations of the 21 variables and the varying levels of awareness, planning and delivery for each. But these are the fundamental areas of focus. You cannot buy effective digital platforming of your business with any amount of technology. You need to evolve to become a digital platform.




***For a copy of this chart in a larger easier to read scale contact me through my signature below.


Truth Two: You Can Self-Diagnose In About 15 Seconds

Brilliant scouts and GM's in Football can spot, analyze and assess talent near instantly. One of them once told me he could do it to about 85% accuracy in less than 15 seconds. Given how much film they look at and how many players they have to assess this is a huge advantage. In this Venn diagram are seven segments of behavior. I'm sure you can complete this self-assessment very quickly. In doing so, you will be able to tell how well your organization is doing at its digital platforming processes.

The 72% that are failing in their initiatives are broken down into these specific areas:


Excited But Paralyzed, (8%): Get the world is changing around us (on each of the seven drivers) but either do not have a strategy for handling their internal challenges or are not focusing on solving them. They do not believe they need to organize differently to succeed. 

 

Blindly Investing, (8%): Get the world is changing, understand critical elements of the Digital Helix and how to invest for it. The failure here is to assess where the organization's challenges need to be faced and handled. A lot of these corporations over-invest in disparate IT and other limited focus consulting engagements.

 

Panic Spending, (17%): They understand the Digital Helix model and they recognize the need to invest, but the vision is in blinkered ignorance of the developing outside world or their own DNA. These companies tended to over-invest in IT, consulting services and the idea of the day.

 

Blind To The Opportunities, (15%): Again, another group that tends to over-index on trying to buy digital platforming. The lack of alignment with market drivers for digital platforming leads to low ROI because these organizations have not worked out how to get the right digital flywheels. 

 

Anxious And Paralyzed, (12%): This group believes the world is passing them by. They understand who they are, but they have not done simple exercises to develop a new digital mindset. They need to look at the outside world and see what the amazing things are that they can take advantage of.

 

Smart But No Action, (12%): These corporations see the changing world; clearly, they understand their own DNA, but they do not have a clear investment framework, like the Digital Helix to work towards.

 

The Digital Helix, (28%): They get the balance between thinking digital, designing for digital success and acting in core digital ways. On scales of 1 to 10 on each of the 21 variables, they are extraordinarily pragmatic about where to over and under index their focus and activities.

 

It really will take 15 seconds. Your first feel about where your organization is will be likely correct. If you want to build the full algorithm, invest 10 minutes here and  it's free. Maybe, more importantly, there is no reason that the 72% not succeeding have anybody to blame but themselves.

 

Part of the success is you need to rid yourself of precepts that may have driven your cash cow. Digital platforming does not involve old recipes, old ways of thinking, or acting. It takes the guts to blow up a cash cow in order to build for a future. 

 

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