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Riding digital’s second wave Industry incumbents failed to grasp the early potential of digital. It’s time for a deep strategic rethink
WRITING
N Venkat Venkatraman ILLUSTRATION
Dale Edwin Murray
Dialogue Q1 2020
There’s considerable confusion among executives about digital transformation. Some see it as a technology problem and delegate it to specialists. Others rely on consultants who paint an exciting picture of the business’s future, but offer unclear pathways to get there. Still others see digital as only relevant in some parts of the economy – such as music, media and financial services – and not in asset-heavy sectors such as transportation, healthcare, retail, logistics and others. The reality is that digital transformation is not about technology. It is the fundamental reshaping of your business, driven by powerful technologies – and it is relevant for every company, in every sector, everywhere in the
world. A second wave of digital change is fast approaching, and leaders need to prepare at a strategic level for the changes ahead.
The second wave of digital transformation
As we enter 2020, we are still in the midst of the first wave of digital transformation. Analogue businesses such as books, music, advertising, software, newspapers, music and media have been transformed by digital technologies. Traditional leaders such as Barnes & Noble, Warner Music, 20th Century Fox, the New York Times and NBC have been challenged and often overtaken by ‘born-digital’ companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Spotify, Netflix and others. Everywhere we look, the born-digital