Digital Value Creation

Welcome to 2022. What a year we have had! While it represented a crisis on many fronts, it also created once in a generation across digital from automation to digital supply chains to new digital customer experiences to blockchain and crypto literally everywhere. I had so many learnings from this unusual year - I chronicled them in 30 episodes in my channel and in several articles in Forbes. Here...

The majority of the companies nowadays are in some stage of digital transformation. Some are very tactical, improving their website and app maybe or automating basic customer interactions. Others are fundamentally changing how the business operates. Business model innovation and digital transformation are two buzzwords and they are increasingly interlinked. How should you and I think about busines...

In the last couple of weeks, I had numerous conversations about what I call the hierarchy of value. A good friend of mine, I call him Jeff, a private equity investor coined this term to me a few years ago. He used this model to decide which improvement projects to invest in and which to pass on in his companies. He wanted simple rules to help his management teams that go beyond hard value and soft...

The massive global talent shortage is driving businesses to automate in even more areas of their operations. Surveys show that more than 60% of the companies already started their automation journey.   There are always some tradeoffs, of course, when doing any enterprise-wide initiative. It would be cool if you could deploy new automated processes overnight. If you could just start your fully auto...

Those of you following this channel, you know this. I’m obsessed with finding out what makes some companies succeed with digital transformation while others struggle. Companies of the same size, same industry, same access to talent, but very different results. \ One key factor is how the digital project gets initiated. Does the transformation start with the CEO or a line manager? Does it really ne...

Why do some companies seem to completely digital transformations effortlessly while others struggle? I believe organizations can achieve the same flow state as people when faced with challenges. If the majority of the people working are in flow sate then their organizations are too. And that is what happens when new innovation projects including digital transformations just seem to click.

I’m clearly not in the studio this week. In fact, I  am in Las Vegas at HIMSS, the largest healthcare tech conference. We had around 20,000 executives here live and thousands more online. This was the largest post-pandemic business conference focused on digital transformation.  This was also one of the first times so many businesses came together to share how they dealt with the crisis, what they...

If you ask someone how to create more value in business, you’re likely to hear the obvious - drive revenue growth and cut costs. That is of course the physics of any business. But every executive knows that it is not that simple. To increase revenues, you likely have to spend more and if you cut costs, revenue tends to suffer. Either way, revenues, and costs are just indicators, they are not speci...

My latest post is on the massive post-pandemic digital expansion due to labor shortage and massive economic growth. While businesses focused on cost and lean operations last year - now it is all about growth, and major digital expansion. Companies are moving from tactical to the strategic use of automation, analytics, and customer experience like never before.

We are living in an unprecedented labor market. Over 10 million jobs were unfilled in May 2021 and millions of people quit their companies last month. While there are many reasons this is happening, one thing is clear. The expectations of your workforce have fundamentally changed in the last year. I believe digital technologies can help stop the exodus and attract new talent. Here is how

I went back on the road this week. I was having real meetings with real people in real offices in New York. Returning to normal business? Hopefully. The recurring topic of the discussion was this. How will hybrid work change how we work together and the technologies we use going forward?

Every few months I take a look at recent research studies and surveys on the state of digital transformation. Normally there are a dozen such surveys in 6 months. This time I found over 100 reports. This is a testament to the fact that digital transformation is now a top 5 strategy goal at most companies.  So let’s take a look at what the data shows

In the last few months, I noticed a remarkable shift in businesses from cost to growth. In 2020 digital transformation mainly focused on cost efficiencies and labor arbitrage. This year it is all about growth, digital customer experience, and better employee experience. Economic expansion and labor shortage create great opportunities for companies with a digital-first mindset.

One thing that sets private equity apart is its relentless focus on value creation. That's why we have this channel. We want to bring  PE value discipline to any digital transformation program. A value creation plan, or VCP, is an enterprise-wide view of all initiatives that will improve the company. Above and beyond business as usual. These can be both digital and non-digital projects. There...

When talking to digital-first companies I noticed 5 big differences in their way of thinking.  1) Digital is a business model 2) Digitizing core functions 3) Scaling digital capability 4) Measuring business impact 5) The C-Team's ownership of digital

How do you tell your value story in 5 minutes?  A good 5-minute value pitch mostly talks about your audience's needs. Never about yours. The first return on investment you will ever demonstrate to a client is the ROI on those 5 minutes of their time.  If you waste their time, they will assume you will waste their money.

"Go Fast and Break Things" has been the mantra of disruptors since Facebook coined the term a decade ago.  Speed does differentiate industry disruptors from incumbents. But is going faster enough to win the digital transformation race?  No. We need more than that. Digital success needs the combination of speed, customer collaboration and positive business impact. Digital leaders like you...

The disruption impacted everyone but not everyone responded equally well. The pandemic, like any crisis, created winners and losers that ultimately can be traced back to a few factors. Here is my summary of what drove the changes in remote value creation.

As we all noticed in the last year, digital projects became an urgent priority at most companies. What was amazing was the speed at which these projects got under way and completed. Urgency became the biggest priority. In normal times there would have been a dozen competing priorities but in crisis mode, it simply became speed and value. Is it possible that project priorities could be that simple...

Some businesses complain that it is difficult to realize the hard benefits of digital programs. In fact, hard benefits seem elusive in many transformation initiatives. Why is that happening? Let's dive into the dynamics of typical corporate finance decisions for the answer.

In business school, a professor told us this: Businesses exist for only 2 reasons: 1) is to make the world better and 2) to turn a profit and not necessarily in that order. His entire course was built around the tangible and intangible value businesses create.  As we think about value creation, both tangible and intangible value drivers become critical. Here's how...

Research shows that lack of digital skills is the main reason why 70% of digital transformations fall short of their goals. Unfortunately, this has been the case for years now. Why is the digital skill gap so hard to fill?

It has become quite a cliche by now that years of digital transformations got done in weeks. It is true of course, but the question remains -why? How come that companies that resisted digital transformation for years finally got on board? Here is what I think.

All digital transformations ultimately need to improve customer experience. Digital project's ultimate value is when they increase revenues and business growth through better customer interactions, loyalty, and higher value exchange. Customers buy more from businesses they trust. We all understand trust in human interactions. But what does Trust mean in the Digital World? Let's take a lo...

There is a paradox in digital transformation. The Digital Leaders seem to accelerate their transformation efforts and focus on scaling faster and broader. At the same time, digital laggards who are behind, do not have the same urgency. They seem to think they have all the time in the world and tend to pilot and experiment instead of scaling. The latest industry research shows that the digital lagg...