Strategic Digital Transformation A Results-Driven Approach

Emerging technologies are having a profound impact upon business as individuals and organisations increasingly embrace the benefits of the ‘always on’ attitude that digital technologies produce. The use of the web, apps, cloud storage, GPS and Internet-connected devices has transformed the way we live, learn, play and interact – yet how a business can fully benefit from this transformation is not always clear. In response, this book enables students and business leaders to take a strategic and sustainable approach to realising the value of digital technologies. It offers results-driven solutions that successfully transform organisations into data-driven, people-focused businesses capable of sustainably competing at a global level. Split across four key parts, the material moves through understanding digital business to planning, implementing and assessing digital transformation. The current challenges facing all small organisations, including limited resources, financial pressures and the lack of dedicated IT departments, are explored. The authors consider the ways in which innovation can increase competitive advantage, how innovative business models can create new opportunities and how a data-driven perspective can release embedded value within the organisation. Contemporary international case studies and examples throughout each chapter bridge theory with practical application and systematically document the patterns of activities that enable success. This textbook is a vital resource for postgraduate and undergraduate students of digital business, innovation and transformation. By showing how to initiate digital transformation across an organisation, it will prepare business owners, directors and management of small- and medium-sized businesses to take strategic advantage of new and emerging technologies to stay ahead of their competition.

PART I: Understanding the digital in business. 1 Why do strategic digital transformation? GORDON FLETCHER, ALEX FENTON AND MARIE GRIFFITHS. 2 How to critically understand the digital landscape. GORDON FLETCHER, ALEX FENTON AND MARIE GRIFFITHS. 3 What is digital business maturity? ALEX FENTON, GORDON FLETCHER AND MARIE GRIFFITHS. 4 Who are my competitors and what is my relationship to them? MARIE GRIFFITHS, ALEX FENTON AND GORDON FLETCHER. 5 Managing the digital transformation of an organisation. TIM GRIGGS, MARIE GRIFFITHS AND GORDON FLETCHER. 6 How to become a digitally enabled and visionary leader. ALEX FENTON, TINA JUDIC AND GORDON FLETCHER. PART II: Digitally transforming the organisation. The external drivers for change. 7 Horizon scanning: cautionary tales. MARIE GRIFFITHS, ALEX FENTON AND GORDON FLETCHER. 8 The challenge of new, ever-changing technology and how to keep up. MARIE GRIFFITHS, DAVID KREPS AND GORDON FLETCHER. 9 Conducting a competitor analysis in the digital age. ALEX FENTON, KATRINA GALLAGHER AND ALEKSEJ HEINZE. 10 Understanding how others see your organisation. SUZANNE KANE. Internal motivations: wanting to change the organisation. 11 Doing a forensic internal audit of your organisation: skills, resources, culture, resistance. ALEKSEJ HEINZE AND GORDON FLETCHER. 12 The value of transparency, sharing, customisation, boldness and openness. MICK HIDES, ALEX CONNOCK AND GORDON FLETCHER. 13 Overcoming the legacy of processes, systems and people. GORDON FLETCHER AND MARIE GRIFFITHS. Planning to change: becoming a data-driven organisation. 14 Tactics to build your digital strategy. ALEX FENTON, KATRINA GALLAGHER AND RICHARD GEORGE. 15 What to plan and when to make decisions with data. GORDON FLETCHER, MARIE GRIFFITHS AND RICHARD DRON. 16 How to create responsive business models. MARIE GRIFFITHS AND GORDON FLETCHER. PART III: Making your plans happen: acting and engaging. 17 Visible change and inspiring others: making events that challenge innovation. ALEX FENTON, NAOMI TIMPERLEY AND ROSY BOARDMAN. 18 Managing your human resources: sequential-tasking and maker time. ALEX FENTON AND JONATHAN LORD. 19 Enabling organisational change: co-creation, co-production and co-consumption. MARIE GRIFFITHS AND RICHARD DRON. 20 Service innovation and transformation: the case of WeChat. YUN CHEN AND WU ZHAO. PART IV: Assessing your success. 21 Permanently embed innovation into your organisation: always interconnected. ALEX FENTON AND NAOMI TIMPERLEY. 22 Measuring the digital transformation in an organisation: audit to discover what value was added. ALEX FENTON, WASIM AHMED AND MICK HIDES. 23 Read me first: the importance of continuous change. MARIE GRIFFITHS, GORDON FLETCHER AND ALEX FENTON.

Alex Fenton is Lecturer in Digital Business at Salford Business School, UK. He has authored a wide range of academic and practitioner articles relating to digital transformation, digital business and digital marketing. He has won an array of industry and teaching awards for his practical approach to enterprise-led, experiential education. Gordon Fletcher is Academic Unit Head at Salford Business School, UK. Gordon’s research focuses on examples and experiences of digital business, culture and practice. Gordon has published work around conflict with online finance communities, economies within virtual game worlds, digital marketing and digital transformation. Marie Griffiths is Reader and Head of the Centre for Digital Business, Salford Business School, UK. Her research focuses on the role of digital technologies and the convergence of the ‘real’ and digital worlds and the social influences of technology. She also writes and teaches in the fields of emerging Technologies, Security and Information Systems.