Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

In this article, I discuss key drivers for adoption of digital business, propose a framework organizations can use to guide their digital transformation efforts, and consider the value digital transformation is delivering in areas of healthcare, travel, and government. 

This article examines the impact of digital technologies, including virtual reality (VR), on the sharing and archiving of life events and explores the potential business opportunities that are apt to arise from these technologies. It also seeks to illustrate, through exploring the impact of disruptive technologies on the photographic industry, the lessons to be drawn when either tackling the technological challenges in a long-established traditional business or seeking to create a new market opportunity enabled by disruptive technologies.

As an executive coach, I continuously hear new clients say, "All I want are results. Is it too much to expect people to deliver on their commitments?" After a few minutes of additional dialogue, we typically discover several organizational, technical, and managerial challenges that have culminated in some noticeable and negative result. In other words, I'm being asked to fix a problem that has escalated to a level that is no longer tolerable to those in leadership.

This is the first in a series of three Advisors on poorly managed and executed government IT systems and their effects on citizens.

Business people judge services by making sense of what they experience relative to their needs. Most business decisions about IT are, and will continue to be, made in this way. This is in contrast to the current IT delivery model and the product-centric process of “define, build, and operate,” which will become less relevant as future technology and increased complexity make defining and testing product requirements difficult, if not impossible, except at runtime.

When everything connects to everything and new value systems emerge, a number of things will start to accelerate disruption in society: the speed of change, the growth of data, and the number of innovations. For businesses, traditional models may suddenly be swept away by disruption, but this disruption can also introduce new opportunities. The proliferation of technology and the new value systems that emerge from it are driving changes in business strategies and IT strategies. A new style of IT has come to the forefront, and it is becoming one of the main drivers of change.

In this on-demand webinar, you'll discover how a shift in perspective and reassertion of some key principles of EVM can make it a successful tool for managing performance on Agile projects.

Digital transformation requires investing early in digital technologies and involves organization-wide changes that pose significant challenges and uncertainties to business leaders. There are many research reports available today on digital transformation technologies, business models, and potential strategies. This Executive Update complements such efforts by assessing the enabling factors, organizational readiness, and skills gaps in Asia-Pacific for 2017. This research was undertaken in conjunction with the IT Conclave organized by the SP Jain School of Global Management in Mumbai, India; Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE); Singapore; and Sydney, Australia, in February 2017. The survey involved more than 150 leaders and business professionals from over 120 organizations. The results were further discussed at IT Conclave events, and inputs were considered in drafting this Update.