PART III

BACK AT THE OFFICE

A Leader’s Playbook for Digital Transformation

You don’t need the vision and leadership qualities of a Steve Jobs or Jeff Bezos to conduct your own digital transformation. As a successful executive, you already possess the basic skills to make your company an insurgent in your own market. As we showed in parts I and II, it takes some new thinking to set the course and committed leadership to drive the transformation. In part III, we have distilled the practices from Digital Masters to present a transformation compass to help you steer the course of this complex journey (figure III.1):

• Framing the digital challenge: Build awareness of digital opportunities and threats. Know your starting point, and assess your digital maturity. Craft a vision, and ensure that your top team is aligned around it.
• Focusing investment: Translate your vision into an actionable roadmap. Build cross-silo governance structures. Put in place the funding for your transformation.
• Mobilizing the organization: Send unambiguous signals about your ambitions and the change needed now. Build momentum and engage the workforce. Set new behaviors and start evolving the organization toward a more innovative culture.
• Sustaining the transition: Build the necessary foundational skills. Align reward structures to overcome traditional organizational barriers. Monitor and measure the progress of the transformation, and iterate when necessary.

Digital transformation is anything but a linear process. You may have already started a number of digital initiatives. You may need to build skills in different areas and redirect your efforts from time to time. Use the digital transformation compass to guide you. The next chapters will steer you through the steps that Digital Masters have taken to maximize the success of their digital transformations.