Understanding digital mastery today Why companies are struggling with their digital transformations
了解当今为什么公司正在努力应对数字转型掌控
Introduction
There is no doubt that organizations understand the importance of digital transformation. Worldwide spending on digital transformation technologies – hardware, software, and services – is expected to cross the $2 trillion mark by 2021.1 The investment commitment to putting the infrastructure in place is not in question.
But, are organizations turning these investments into successful transformation journeys? In our 2012 research with the MIT Center for Digital Business, we established that a high-performing cohort of organizations – digital masters – outperformed their peers in every industry.2 Six years on we undertook new research to gauge whether large organizations have mastered the art and the science of digital transformation.
We surveyed more than 1,300 executives in over 750 global organizations and interviewed senior executives responsible for their organizations’ digital transformation programs.
Six years after our original research, organizations have had time to build capability and experience in driving digital transformation and one would expect the level of digital mastery to have progressed from 2012. However, our research does not find a clear advancement. Organizations are still struggling to turn their investments into business successes. This might reflect the difficulty for organizations to adapt to the dizzying pace of change in technology innovation (e.g., artificial intelligence, internet of things, automation). Moreover, business model disruptions in many industries are challenging traditional value-chains. But, it could also be that organizations were overly optimistic in 2012 and have now realized the magnitude of the challenge, coupled with rising expectations of markets, employees, and customers.
In this report, we focus on three key areas:
• An assessment of how organizations have progressed with their digital transformations in the last six years
• The major challenges that organizations face as they implement their digital transformations
• Key recommendations for how organizations can sustain their digital transformation journeys based on what digital masters do differently today.