The Digital Playbook

To successfully leverage new technologies, you must understand your business’s current processes, strategy and structure.

To make technology work better for a business, you first need to understand how the business works. Just like you’d plan before painting a room or exercising for better health, it’s important to consider your business’s current strategy and processes and how technology can help. Many companies struggle with this initial step and, as a result, they don’t see hoped-for improvements when they add new technology to the mix.

Start with strategic thinking: Look at how the company runs and where you want it to go. Many leaders fail to address external challenges that could improve business functions due to their internal focus on management, budget and profits. Internal employees are often best equipped to deal with these external challenges because they know the company’s strengths and weaknesses and where implementing new technology could help most.

Leaders should include internal talent in creating overall business strategies. A strategic plan should consist of three primary...