TechSavvy: Is Your Company Winning the Race to Digital Transformation?

MIT Sloan Management Review, November 10, 2016

by Theodore Kinni


In some respects, the digitization of business is a pretty nebulous subject. It’s not like a company achieves digital transformation on some specific date — the darn target moves as new technologies and applications appear. That’s one reason why Jane McConnell’s 10th annual inquiry into “The Organization in the Digital Age” is worth a look.

McConnell frames digital transformation as an organizational imperative that manifests itself in three dimensions: people, workplace, and technology. Over the past decade, she has been gauging the progress that a broad, international group of 300+ companies and other institutions has been making toward this imperative in three stages.

The Starting stage is defined by an individual (rather than organizational) digital awareness — digital initiatives are ad hoc and infrequent; senior leaders are minimally involved; most decisions are made by traditional hierarchy; work mainly takes place in established channels, with some virtual venues. The Developing stage is defined by mobilization — a compelling vision for digital transformation exists; senior managers are leading the charge; most functions, levels, and entities are involved in digital initiatives. The Maturing stage is defined by trust — digital is considered a strategic asset; it is embedded in work practices; much decision making is decentralized; information and collaboration is organization-wide and includes customers and external partners.

“The 2016 data shows 16% of the survey participants in the Maturing stage, 52% in the Developing stage, and 32% in the Starting stage,” McConnell reports. Where does your company place? Read the rest here.