Enabling Digital in the Enterprise

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, organizations were reticent to share what technologies they were embracing, why they were undertaking specific initiatives, and how they were executing their digital strategy. In the current environment, enterprises are much more forthcoming in the sharing of their strategic plan, the rationale behind the direction, the enabling technologies, and the approach to delivery.

Why the change? The evidence is in the execution.

“90% of CEOs believe the digital economy will impact their industry, but less than 15% are executing on a digital strategy.” — MIT Sloan and Capgemini

As digital has matured, organizations realize that execution is the output of an effective team culture, experience negotiating perpetual change, a thirst for currency and learning, and an effective decision-making framework. Successful teams do not chase the next shiny ball, but rather make sound decisions based on an evaluation of progressive options grounded in specific customer needs (internal or external), their current environment and situation, and the best data, information, and research at the time.

“The next 5 years will be more disruptive than the last 15. This is NOT business as usual. A lot of technology that came in three years ago doesn’t work anymore.” — Saul Berman, IBM

A core tenet of execution success is to consider how decisions made today - be them customer-focused, business-focused, or technology-focused - will enable the future agility and flexibility of the organization. Adopting a proactive framework for decision-making versus a reactive, fire fighting norm is critical. And, if the needed expertise is not currently on hand, recognizing, sourcing, and developing the skills is critical to negotiating continued transformation and disruption.

“The last ten years of IT have been about changing the way people work. The next ten years of IT will be about transforming your business.” — Aaron Levie, BOX