Digital Economy Dispatch #056 -- The "Digital Economy Dispatches" Book is Now Available!

October 03, 2021

Digital Economy Dispatch #0563rd October 2021

The "Digital Economy Dispatches" Book is Now Available!

It is now well over a year since I shared that first weekly commentary on the emerging digital economy and the pathways that organizations can take in digital transformation to survive and thrive in the digital world. To celebrate, I have spent time over the Summer to bring together many of the articles to create the “Digital Economy Dispatches” book. It is available now for free download!

Published under a Creative Commons licence, I invite you not only to download this book and take a read, but also to share, extend, and build upon these ideas within your teams. By publishing it in this way, this collection can form the basis for important conversations across colleagues and stakeholders in your organization. 

The Background and Context for this Book

The digital world is still reverberating to the shockwave caused by the global pandemic. As Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in April 2020:

“We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security—we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.”

Facing significant disruption, a focus on digital transformation has been seen as the only effective way to survive and thrive in an extended period of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). Forced into rapid response with a disconnected workforce and wildly changing client demand, reliance on digital technologies has been essential for managing business operations, exchanging essential information quickly, collaborating on joint tasks, and maintaining any semblance of shared corporate culture across the organization.

The resulting digitally-powered response from many organizations has been nothing short of miraculous. With IT and digital services staff stepping up to the challenge, a high level of operational resilience was achieved. Furthermore, despite the disruption, digitally-savvy leaders have found ways to deploy digital technologies to overcome barriers to physical engagement and replace broken manual practices, in many cases they have also substantially redesigned products, services, and working practices to adjust their cost base and offer new forms of value to their clients.

Yet as always, there is no time to dwell. The world moves on and we have a lot to consider. How do we view digital transformation in light of recent experiences? 

Digital Economy Dispatches

The “Digital Economy Dispatches” book is a collection of short reflections on the digital world and its implications for business and society. It is a commentary on the challenges facing organizations as they undergo digital transformation. It is advice to leaders and managers seeking guidance on how they can be successful in today’s digital economy. But much more than that, it is a reflection on my own journey in understanding digital technology and its implications.

I hope you enjoy this book as a broad collection of digital economy dispatches written over the past year or more. They have been brought together around several key themes and lightly edited to help the reader navigate through the topics.

Spend time dipping into these reviews and feel inspired by these commentaries to share your own insights and prepare your organization for the emerging opportunities and challenges in our rapidly evolving digital economy.

Digital Economy Tidbits

A “Digital Transformation Supplement” in The Times. Link.

Interesting to read an extensive supplement distributed with The Times newspaper on “Digital Transformation”. Quite a wide collection of articles on a variety of topics related to the theme of digital disruption and its implications.

The Times Newspaper and Digital Leaders have teamed up to publish a special report on Digital Transformation in the Times.

The 28 page report considers how after 18 months of rapid digital transformation, questions are now being asked about how many of the changes implemented will last as the world reopens. It also explores how to measure performance, why embracing corporate digital responsibility is crucial and whether people really are the secret to transformation success.

The 4 Tiers of Digital Transformation. Link.

Here is a very effective short discussion about how data-driven approaches change business models. Some very useful examples and illustrations are provided and used to form a simple 4 tier framework. Well worth a read.

Companies often assume that if they embrace digital technology in any way, they’re digitally transforming their business. As a result, they often make only ad hoc changes and investments in the digital arena, with ineffectual results. This article provides an introduction to four distinct tiers of digital transformation, each of which meets different strategic objectives and allows companies to maximize the value they capture from digital technologies.