Cambridge Business Association
Achieving Digital Maturity
Article

Achieving Digital Maturity

Adapting Your Company to a Changing World

Gerald C. Kane, Doug Palmer, Anh Phillips, David Kiron and Natasha Buckley
MIT Sloan Management Review, 2017
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For several years, MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte have been conducting annual surveys of thousands of business leaders and managers – along with supplemental interviews – to study the best practices of maturing digitally. In this report, a team of five MIT Sloan Management Review contributors presents its insights; examples involving global retailer Walmart and other prominent companies make each practice concrete. Learn if your firm has what it takes to keep pace in the digital race – and what measures to take if you’re lagging.

Summary

Digitally maturing companies take the long view.

Digitally immature firms tend to keep their gaze on the near future. By contrast, digitally maturing companies are twice as likely to plan for at least five years ahead. For instance, Walmart’s digital strategy looked 10 years ahead and went beyond acquiring successful online retailers to compete with Amazon. Walmart executives expect the shopping experience to change remarkably between the years 2022 and 2027 and to require not just new technology but an organizational setup that will allow the company to adjust continually. Walmart’s 10-year strategy acknowledges that the company will need to be able to respond swiftly to changes in consumer behavior, technology and globalization. Already, the big-box chain has hired tens of thousands of people to fill emerging tech positions like “online grocery personal shopper.”

Becoming more digitally mature involves rethinking how you structure your organization and get work done.

About the Authors

Gerald C. Kane, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips, David Kiron and Natasha Buckley are contributors to the MIT Sloan Management Review.

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