CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7 - 7

07

DIGITALIZATION
IS HARDLY A
NEW IDEA.

In the articles of this special section on
digitalization, CIOs share their experiences with and
lessons learned from one or more elements of
enterprise digitalization.
Andy Weir, CIO and Chief Executive, Enterprise
Services, at Australia's Bankwest, describes how using
digital technologies to create an enhanced customer

Amid the frenzy of the dot-com boom, some strategy

experience has required a makeover of the traditional

experts urged established companies to look beyond

culture of technology teams. Torben Høeg Bonde,

the reactive one-off moves that were typical of the

SVP and CIO of Denmark's Vestas Wind Systems, tells

time. Instead of scrambling to create an e-commerce

how digitalization is remaking Vestas, from a product

site or a killer software app or a separate e-business,

to a service company. Manoj Kumbhat, SVP and CIO

the incumbents were encouraged to use new digital

of HCL Technologies (the publisher of CIO Straight

technologies to transform their very business models,

Talk), explains how the company has gone beyond

which would enable them to compete with their

the usual digital initiatives involving employees - for

emerging born-digital competitors.

example, equipping them with mobile apps that
improve efficiency - and has created a portfolio

Fifteen years later, it is surprising how many
established companies continue to view digitalization

of digital tools that enable and foster grass roots

in terms of plug-in solutions and tactical moves

innovation. Orsolya Sekerka, CIO of Malaysia's Digi

prompted by new technology rather than business

Telecommunications, recounts how Digi's IT function

needs. But if an established company wants to be

was reconfigured in order to effectively support the

truly "reborn digital," what does that involve?

company's digitalization program.
And leading off the section is Michael Nilles, CIO

At the least, it means replacing a piecemeal
approach with a comprehensive digital strategy. That

of Switzerland's Schindler Group and recipient of the

strategy - built on but not defined by technology

2015 MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award. Nilles offers an

- should encompass multiple mutually reinforcing

account of Schindler's comprehensive digitalization

digital initiatives. These initiatives will span traditional

program, which has transformed the company's

organizational silos, run the entire length of numerous

products, processes, employee effectiveness, and

value chains, and even extend beyond

customer interactions. Rounding out the digitalization

the organization.

package is a timeline of digitalization milestones.
The issue also includes a "Big Thinking" interview

This coordinated leveraging of digital capabilities
should create a compelling and unified experience for

with George Westerman of the MIT Sloan Initiative

users all along one of the various value chains - not

on the Digital Economy and the co-author of Leading

just customers but also employees, suppliers, and

Digital, which focuses on the ways that CIOs and

partners. In the 21st century, the user experience, as

others can effectively lead digitalization programs.
One caveat: The articles in this package are only

much as the product or service, is the key driver of

snapshots captured at a certain point in time. Because

business success.

digital technology evolves so quickly - a rule of thumb

This kind of holistic approach to digitalization will
in fact transform your organization and most likely

puts the shelf life of a technology innovation at around

your business model, just as the strategy gurus were

six months - digitalization must be a continuous

advocating nearly two decades ago.

journey. As you roll out new digital capabilities that
allow you to move forward along the path of that

Keep in mind, though, that transformation, so often

journey, you are simultaneously rolling up from behind

end in itself. It is a means to reducing costs, increasing

you yesterday's new capabilities, now outdated. The

revenue, and opening up new business opportunities.

process of digital invention and reinvention never ends.

A Histo ry o f
DigitAlizAtion

1948

held up as the Holy Grail of modern business, is not an

Claude Shannon, in "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in the
Bell System Technical Journal, writes: "If the base 2 is used [for measuring
information] the resulting units may be called binary digits, or more briefly
bits, a word suggested by J. W. Tukey. A device with two stable positions,
such as a relay or a flip-flop circuit, can store one bit of information."
CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CIO Straight Talk - Issue 7
