Digital disruption. Lot of talk but not many putting money on it. Its more for growing the present business rather than future business. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) conducted its 7th annual Digital IQ Survey with the objective of identifying ten key digital transformation attributes which correlate to achieving stronger financial performance.

The Digital IQ Survey threw up some interesting and some of the already known digital transformation attributes which enhance financial performance. Of course, the first on the list is the CEO’s direct involvement in the process. 73% of respondents felt that CEO should be the champion for digital transformation. One of the interesting attributes that showed up in the survey was that Digital enterprise investments are made primarily for achieving competitive advantage implying that digital technology should be used to do business as it should be done rather than just doing it what you were doing before more efficiently. That is, digital transformation should be looked at to bring about a paradigm shift.

Going digital is becoming a critical part of corporate strategy. It is on most entrepreneurs and managers. They are some stage of thinking or implementing digital transformation of their organization. It is critical that you think of digital transformation in terms of strategy, selecting the architectural framework and execution in an integrated manner.

Think of digital transformation with a much broader perspective, that is, engulfing the entire business including enhancing customer experience, changing processes to reduce costs, simplify service management, optimizing operations and seeking business insight through analytics with the objective of gaining competitive advantage. Nicolas suggests that you should not think of digital transformation in terms of creating entirely new systems and processes, or try to reinvent the wheel, however, do not hesitate to change what is necessary. 

In this must read article, Nicholas Evans discusses six key steps to make your digital transformation journey a success. What more. He also displays a digital transformation model with the six key characteristics that can assist you in planning your digital transformation journey.

In this article, Joseph Agoada discusses a very interesting source of innovation and breakthrough business ideas. Necessity is the mother of innovation and nonprofits and social impact organizations are perpetually in “necessity” which forces them to come up with “social innovation” to find a solution.

Till now, we have thought of dealing with the social innovation of nonprofits with charity and donations. But now, it’s time to think of our corporate strategy in terms of forming partnership with these nonprofit organizations and to think of “social innovation” as an business opportunity. We need to move away from charity to turning social innovation into a profitable venture through social impact investment.

NGOs and non-profit organizations innovate with practical solutions to the problems they face. They are aware of ground realities, have in-depth knowledge and also know the solution to the problem. As such, they are a great resource for organizations to turn social innovation into profitable ventures to solve world’s tough problems through new innovative partnerships between the public and private sector. This is what Vodafone did with M-Pesa , it’s money transfer service through mobile in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. 

Some individuals stand out with their business innovations but they all possess some common characteristics. Inspiration is sought by them in places none apparently exist. Their decision making process I usually slow. Their motivation levels are high. Any problem they face, they go back to the drawing board. Risks are ingrained as part of their decision making process. They keep trying new ideas. They are also good at connecting the dots between seemingly disparate experiences. Curiously, they believe in supernatural occurrences such as magic.

A year on from unveiling its maiden package, Software AG has released its second version of its digital business platform. This one is specifically aimed at easing operations for public sector enterprises. It provides a dedicated digital marketing solutions kit along with cloud support. There is an IT architecture planner based around ARIS GRC software. The trend of companies reversing the process of outsourcing of IT operations has picked up since GE took the step.

The work culture at online retail giant Amazon came under fierce criticism in a recent article on the New York Times. The employees working at Amazon are apparently harassed by the work culture which breeds insecurity. This stems from the corporate strategy at Amazon as the retail giant has listed 14 principles which are at the core of its highly customer-centric business model. Another firm BTG had a similar philosophy yet it has now diversified. There is a similar customer-centric feel to the firm, yet employees do not apparently feel the constant scrutiny due to the way a positive culture has spread contiguous throughout the firm.

With less than a tenth of the US population having served in any branch of the military, it becomes quite a challenge for talent recruitment professionals to assess veterans during job interviews. Achievement, attitude and ambition are the three aspects on which the evaluation of the candidate must take place. These may be described as the 3 As. Within Achievement, the candidate may be assessed within further sub points. Rank advancement within the military shows how the person is good at managing politics. Awards earned will be a true measure of merit. The military school selection and completion points out the background of the candidate. Extra-curricular achievements can better indicate the suitability of the candidate for civilian job positions. Also post leaving the position at the military, the person’s records must be analyzed.