The Post-Digital Enterprise

Going Beyond the Hype

Editors: Prof. Gianluigi Castelli, Prof. Severino Meregalli, Prof. Dr. Ferdinando Pennarola

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Book Series : Future of Business and Finance

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Table of Contents

About this book

A new wave of digital technologies has impacted the business world like a tsunami. But after a first phase characterized by hype and unrealistic expectations, there is now a shared need for a better understanding of how to create real and sustainable value by adopting these technologies. This book suggests a pragmatic approach to value creation by embracing the post-digital mindset: a more mature attitude toward digital innovation focused on putting these technologies at work rather than marveling at them. After the illustration of a post-digital manifesto, the book explores all the key topics and tools that are relevant for the decision makers in this context.

Frontmatter

Companies and Digital Transformation

Abstract

The prevalence of digital technologies is luring organizations to transcend into the digital firm. While the idea and the notion of the digital firm seem attractive to many traditional firms, embarking on this journey brings a plethora of challenges due to the disruptive nature of digital technologies. The chapter underscores that even though digital technologies lead to value creation, in many cases their adoption in firms is driven by hype and competitive pressures. We provide evidence for this by discussing how a flurry of digital startups has emerged over the past years, but a lot of them do not scale up. The chapter describes what a digital firm is and discusses the challenges legacy firms encounter in transitioning to a digital firm. The chapter discusses how traditional businesses need to address several issues such as appropriate organizational structures, change management programs, managing digital talent to be able to extract value from their digital transformation programs.

Aakanksha Gaur

Disruptive as Usual: A Manifesto for the Digital Age

Abstract

The last 20 years have seen the birth and unprecedented successful growth of a new breed of digital companies. However, in the post-digital era, all companies, including the market leaders, are constantly under attack from new entrants that make a better use of digital technologies. The equation between digital technologies and value creation is not simple and should not be taken for granted. Many are the mistakes that companies can make when adopting digital technologies and more importantly, digital business models. In this chapter, a set of rules is drafted, in the form of a manifesto, to reduce the risk of failure while ensuring the necessary speed of change.

Gianluigi Castelli

Rediscovering the Fundamentals of Value Creation

Abstract

While in the last decade Digital Transformation has been claimed as the mandatory path to take to generate business value, the post-digital perspective suggests that Executives can rely on other relevant options for the digital evolution of their organizations. Starting from a customer-driven perspective, this chapter frames the four traditional processes linked to the fundamentals of value creation: digitalization, digital transformation, digital disruption, and digital innovation. Moreover, the discussion highlights a more contemporary approach for incumbent companies aiming at leveraging on digital to continuously generate value: the minimum viable transformation. Eventually, the chapter highlights the main differences and connections between the analyzed approaches, in an effort to provide Executives with a toolkit to craft a solid value-based digital transition path for their organizations.

Gianluca Salviotti

Competences and Capabilities for Digital Value Creation

Abstract

This chapter aims to synthetize the vast debate on how to build and maintain the competences that firms need in the digital world. In doing so, we source from two complementary views. First, a bottom-up view of the competences and skills of single individuals. Second, a top-down perspective that focuses on the importance of organizations that can systematically scan the external environment, select priorities, mobilize the right individual competences, and orchestrate them to drive the result home. The role of digital product teams in modern tech companies tries to achieve exactly this goal. Even non-tech businesses, not naturally structured to enable this orchestration and reconfiguration, are taking inspiration from this approach and mentality to foster change.

Lorenzo Diaferia

Enterprise Renewal and Change Management

Abstract

This chapter explores the challenges of renewal and change management when digital transformation projects take the lead. The change challenge is defined as the transition from the current state to the future state. The current state is the non-digital enterprise, the future state is best represented by the full-digital enterprise, while the post-digital enterprise is the one benefitting of the digital transformations successfully deployed and installed, as well as people’s behaviors being consistent with digital technologies in place. Change and renewal strategies have to overcome and contrast resistance: the chapter deals with the fundamental questions of change: they are (a) what is change all about? (b) why is change needed? (c) how will change be processed? (d) who will run the change? and (e) when is the right moment for change?

Ferdinando Pennarola

A Tool for the Boardroom: The Devo Lab Hit Radar

Abstract

The increasingly important role played by digital technologies in challenging and overcoming consolidated conceptions of business models makes urgent for CIOs to grasp their value to remain competitive. However, being a savvy adopter is hard, as hasty decisions may easily lead to disappointing results and a waste of money. In order to try to solve this issue, the DEVO Lab developed the HIT Radar, a tool to evaluate the impact, ecosystem, and dynamics of digital technological objects for mid- to large-sized enterprises. In the following chapter, we describe the HIT Radar with particular reference to:

Differences and similarities compared to other technology assessment tools
Its methodology and the related construction process
Its main benefits and limitations

Nico Abbatemarco

The Hit Radar in Action

Abstract

In this chapter, we apply the HIT Radar to identify the limitations and actual potential of three high-impact technologies: blockchain, 5G, and drones. The application of the HIT Radar to evaluate blockchain highlights that this technology is not as disruptive as it is often celebrated due to some technical, business, and regulatory limitations. Next, we show that 5G is still far away enterprise adoption, mainly due to marginal organization impact, high deployment costs, and limited technical advancements. Finally, the chapter examines another technological object, drones, and concludes that in 2021 it is possible to consider drone technology ready for enterprise adoption—even if the technology is still far from being perfect and some issues need to be taken in consideration.

Leonardo Maria De Rossi

The Legal Side of Digital Technologies: Challenges and New Paradigms

Abstract

The chapter aims to provide an overview of the relationship between law and the rise of digital technologies. It focuses on two of the most challenging issues that have come up in cyberspace, namely, the role of online platforms in the context of content moderation and the protection of personal data. It highlights the role played by courts in safeguarding the rule of law principle also in the digital sphere, in light of the emergence of new “private powers” that more and more are capable of influencing the degree of protection of human rights (such as freedom of expression and the right to privacy).

Marco Bassini, Oreste Pollicino

Enabling the Post-digital Enterprise

Abstract

To transform the potential of the new digital technologies into real value, all enterprises need to embrace a different attitude toward digital innovation. This attitude is well defined by the “post-digital” approach that evades hype and unrealistic expectations and fosters principles such as the importance of understanding the theoretical pillars behind firms’ performance and digital technologies, trust as key enabler of timely innovations and the importance of a mature approach to digital innovation. The chapter, building on DEVO Lab experience and field researches, describes the rationale and the features of the post-digital enterprise.

Severino Meregalli

Title: The Post-Digital Enterprise
Editors: Prof. Gianluigi Castelli
Prof. Severino Meregalli
Prof. Dr. Ferdinando Pennarola
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-94837-5
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-94836-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94837-5