News in Digital from The Digital Transformation People #22

So here we are in Q4 with a real feeling of increased  urgency around digital transformation. We are well along the way of understanding what it is and beginning to acknowledge the need to change the way we work: adopt agile working practices, enable collaboration, change the culture and re-skill the corporation. But the key questions now are about the ‘how’.

You’ll read below about the trillions of dollars that will be spent between now and 2021 but unless we learn the ‘how’, particularly around culture change and people, most of it will go to waste. So please, read on and learn from the experience and insights we’ve curated for you so that you at least will make a success of your digital transformation.

A GOOD READ

Digital transformation in 2019: Lessons learned the hard way
By Dion Hinchcliffe
What should digital leaders focus on for digital transformation in 2019? “Here’s a shortlist of the 12 most likely vital issues and topics that you should address next year, based on a broad survey I conducted of current trends, client insights, case studies, and data.” ~  Dion Hinchcliffe

STRATEGY

Best marketing strategy for 2019
A call to action Gary Vaynerchuk style!
Disruption is putting global brands out of business .. his advice “do something about it !” h/t Jason MacKenzie

Digital strategy: The four fights you have to win
By Tanguy Catlin, Laura LaBerge, and Shannon Varney
“Yesterday’s tentative approaches won’t deliver; you need absolute clarity about digital’s demands, galvanized leadership, unparalleled agility, and the resolve to bet boldly.”

Swimming along a road in a flood of digital transformation
By Paul Hobcraft
Another and perhaps a gentler call to action that may resonate with those just coming to terms with the need for digital transformation and some guidance on how to approach it.

HOW TO

21 Lessons From Jeff Bezos’ Annual Letters To Shareholders
“Each year, Jeff Bezos writes an open letter to Amazon’s shareholders. Over the last two decades, these letters have become an unparalleled source of insight into how the world’s richest man — and his company — think about customers, innovation, building products, and more.”

Why You Should Take A Decision-First Approach To Analytics
By Joe Decosmo
“Data science should be decision-driven, not data-driven. Too often companies build it and they don’t come.
You’d think this would be obvious to hard-nosed business people but frequently it isn’t – they’ve been suckered into thinking they need to collect and store as much data as possible because data must have value by virtue of its existence” ~ Kevin Gray

5 Ways to Improve Developer Productivity and Quality on Agile Development Teams
By Isaac Sacolick
“Many digital leaders that are new to scaling agile ask about measuring individual developer and tester productivity since most agile metrics such as velocity are aggregate measures around a team’s performance.” Here some advice from best selling Author of ‘Driving Digital’

How Digital Transformation Remakes The Enterprise
Renowned for his superb visuals and thinking on digital transformation here’s Dion Hinchliffe’s “clearest visual summary of the change enablement ‘bridge’ that must be built across our legacy organizations to our new digital enterprises.”

PEOPLE & CHANGE

Enterprises will spend $7 trillion on digital transformation by 2021
By John Koetsier
Digital transformation improves speed to market, competitiveness, innovation capacity, and other critical areas of an enterprise, however, success depends on culture and culture depends on people. It’s all about the people.

The Future Of Work: Three New HR Roles In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence
By Jeanne Meister
We are witnessing revolutionary, not just incremental change. So what will “the new normal” look like for our HR leaders as we approach 2020?

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

Advertisers are ditching Google and putting their search budgets into Amazon
By Wes Schlagenhauf
Amazon is making huge headway in the advertising game, becoming the 3rd largest US digital advertising platform behind Google and Facebook.
It also doesn’t hurt that around 49% of product searches begin on Amazon — meaning that Google is becoming an unnecessary middleman.

Infographic: In a Screen-Filled World, Word of Mouth Is Still Key
By Sammy Nickalls
“It turns out that despite the increasing influence of mobile, face-to-face communication is still essential for brands to succeed. But while word of mouth is undoubtedly powerful, personal experience is still king.”

Awesome post by Doyle Buehler
“..Whilst addressing the confusion within the digital landscape what is crystal clear is ‘integrity vs bluster’ – be it via the personal brand promise, business vision values and digital toolbox. The 3 pillars are identified and implemented without hyperbole and self-aggrandisement but integral substance.

1. Influence & Inspiration
2. Authority & Awareness
3. Knowledge & Expertise ”
~ Sue Parker

What exactly is online trust, and why does every business have it so wrong?
By Doyle Buehler
“Trust is not an interface. It’s a human condition. You have the technology, now you have to make it human, again.”

TECHNOLOGY

How to choose an IoT platform
By Richard Braithwaite
If you’re wondering how to get started with IOT, here’s some good advice from our new Contributing Author and IOT advisory specialist Richard Braithwaite

Walmart Tells Produce Suppliers to Use Blockchain by Next September
By Nikhilesh De
Mass adoption of #Blockchain Technology will only come about if it makes sense commercially. When practical benefits such as product integrity and ROI outweigh the cost and effort of implementation. This is a great example of how quickly things can change’ h/t Tom Mason

New MIT Robot Can Delicately Handle Objects It’s Never Seen Before
By George Dvorsky
“Robots in factories are really good at picking up objects they’ve been pre-programmed to handle, but it’s a different story when new objects are thrown into the mix. To overcome this frustrating inflexibility, a team of researchers from MIT devised a system that essentially teaches robots how to assess unfamiliar objects for themselves.”

Ocado is revolutionizing the online grocery sector with its unique air traffic controlled robotics
“Ocado is revolutionizing the online grocery sector with its unique air traffic controlled robotics. They run one of the most technologically advanced factories in the world, from southern England, the size of three football pitches.”~ Richard Shibi

TALENT

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner says the biggest skills gap in the US is not coding
By Simone Stolzoff
“Ask anyone which professional skill is most in demand right now, and they’ll likely say coding. But ask LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, and he’ll give you a different answer.”

How artificial intelligence is shaking up the job market
By Igor Perisic
The World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs 2018 report looks at the facts we know about the future of work rather than speculation and evaluates the changing contours of work in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

LEADERSHIP

If Humility Is So Important, Why Are Leaders So Arrogant?
By Bill Taylor
In the face of so much evidence that humble leaders do, in fact, outperform arrogant leaders, why is it so hard for leaders at every level to check their egos at the office door?

Stop avoiding tough conversations, why ‘cutting the BS’ is key to good leadership, and more top insights

“Cut the BS. Can the excuses. Forget the fancy reports. Get moving now. Get the job done.” ~Tom Peters

Strengthening the CIO – Corporate Board Relationship
By Terry Bennett
“The majority of boards lack the technology prowess needed to successfully guide today’s digital era company. What, then, can the CIO do to bridge the gap and develop a great relationship with the board?”

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The Global Unicorn Club
A unicorn startup or unicorn company is a private company with a valuation of over $1 billion. As of August 2018, there are more than 260 unicorns around the world. See them here in CB Insights’ latest list of these esteemed creatures.

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