My article in FORBES published 15 February 2017.
Nearly all of us today are connected to digital services. We are both the co-architects and consumers of digital reality. Technologies fascinate us, they are currently in fashion and sell well. Start-ups, digital and web apps are all trendy and cool. However, there is another face to digitization – the complex and often painful change of business organizations. What consequences of digitization should a modern company reckon with? What should it do to survive in a market swept by a digital revolution? Described below are some key elements one might want to consider in designing a digitization strategy.
The megatrend: enter generation C
A new generation is here, referred to as Gen C, with a “C” for connected. In 2020, a whole generation of people who will have spent their entire childhoods and youth in a fully digital world will come of age. The Internet, smartphones and social media are the only world they know. Their intimate familiarity with the latest technologies, their use of mobile devices for communication, their immersion in the network of family, friend and business colleague contacts substantially affects the way they consume goods and perform work.
In pondering the changes in business beyond performance indicators, one should carefully examine labor force demographics. Older generations may find it difficult to cope with digital processes and may need extra help dealing with change.
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