Doing Digital (PDF)

We have gone through one of the most disruptive societal changes, on a global scale, over the last three years due to COVID-19. Regardless of the personal and professional impact the pandemic had on us, we've all had to adapt to a different reality that continues today. The pandemic has also forced organizations large and small to adjust and rethink their normal business activities - sometimes in abrupt ways - in order to survive a global shutdown.

Organizations that did adjust well applied five major principles that they'll be wise to continue with for the long-term, both when facing extreme events or merely the new normal. First and foremost, successful organizations accelerated digital and the use of digital tools and business models as much as possible. For example, retail operations with modest digital presence suddenly had to sell through digital channels, rather than physical stores. Entertainment content creators had to push everything into streaming services instead of theaters. And healthcare providers moved patient encounters from in-person to telehealth as much as was feasible and safe.

This accelerated the digital transformation movement and is the focus of this book. This thought-provoking book offers fundamental principles and a narrative about the entire journey to doing and ultimately being digital, with the view to help the reader build their own mental model on how to approach digital in their situations and organizations.

The book also draws a story in which concepts and practices are introduced as needed and is based on the author's own experiences at American Express and Disney. Presented in five parts, the author introduces the topics of digital, digitization, and digital transformation; discusses the fundamental concepts and building blocks of digital; describes who makes up the ideal digital team; the principles and processes of execution; and puts it all together in the context of the overall business. The author concludes his narrative with a case study from the healthcare industry - an industry that is still 10-15 years behind in their digital transformation. The book concludes with the author's observations of what AI and ChatGPT means for digital transformations.