Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

Thomas Gossler writes about how a digital ecosystem platform demands a solid architecture for data and infrastructure on top of which a network of stakeholders can engage in valuable interactions with each other. The journey from a pipeline business model to an ecosystem platform is no small feat, and the author shares the approach he and his colleagues at Siemens Healthineers took and the lessons learned in their seven-year digital transformation

Any digital transformation requires significant changes across many dimensions, ranging from operating models to funding models to platform architecture, among others. In this article, Eric Willeke argues that keeping these changes aligned can be one of the hardest elements of digital transformation, especially when organizations try to sidestep the challenge of evolving their current technology organization to the required level of capability by creating a new, “digital” organization instead. Such attempts fail to address three problem areas that can trip up any digital transformation effort: fragmented value streams, poor decision governance, and inadequate management of the business capability portfolio.

Here in Part II of this Executive Update series, we examine findings pertaining to surveyed organizations’ plans for adopting IPA into the enterprise, the establishment of dedicated enterprise IPA groups, the groups that are taking the lead on IPA, and the reasons such groups oversee enterprise IPA initiatives. 

The information-dominant financial services (FS) industry has witnessed fractional, fragmented, and transactional digitization compared to entertainment, transportation, travel, lodging, and retail. The FS industry is heavily regulated, consolidated, and has already-built digital capabilities; while the fintech pure plays have shown efficiency, many are built on the same business models as the traditional FS businesses. Thus, a genuinely disruptive model challenging the prominent incumbents of the FS industry has not yet emerged.

Each year, research organizations publish lists of the top technologies to watch in the new year. Many of these trendy “celebrity” technologies appear on every list we see. But what about the ones that don’t always make the lists but are important to our personal and professional lives? In this Executive Update, we present a list of seven underdogs — technologies to watch closely. Look out — they just might become “wonderdogs” in 2021 and beyond.

Even when responses to diversity, equity, and inclusion disparities are obligatory, we’re still missing the mark. Truth is, we have most of the pieces. We’re not apply­ing the knowledge that we have, which is why we’re missing the big picture. This Advisor considers how businesses navigate employment.

Often overlooked as financial filings to meet regulatory requirements, company annual reports provide an endless well of insight about how and how well companies articulate and integrate business strategy with risk management and performance measurement.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a bold global agenda helping the world move beyond traditional indicators such as GDP growth and per capita income to a broader set of objectives that include well-being, environmental sustainability, and social fairness. In this Executive Update, we describe the individual and organizational benefits of contributing to the SDGs as well as how organizations can leverage business architecture to achieve these goals.