Leaders must understand the critical forces driving digital to the core of products and services and learn how to remap their industries, remodel their organisations and remake themselves to take digital to the core of their leadership, according to Gartner.
In the book “Digital to the Core: Remastering Leadership for your Industry, your Enterprise and Yourself”, Mark Raskino, vice-president and Gartner Fellow, and Graham Waller research vice-president at Gartner, explain how leaders can remap their industry, remodel their organisation and remake themselves. To delve into the secrets of today’s successful digital leaders, the authors supplement Gartner’s vast research base and annual executive survey data with more than 30 interviews of CIOs, CEOs, chief digital and data officers, and other C-level executives.
“We see three critical forces at work that are coming from outside the organisation and penetrating right to the core of it,” says Raskino. “We call the first, ‘Resolution Revolution,’ where the sensors in objects from cars to tennis rackets will see what’s going on in the world around them in ever greater detail, revealing things we could never see or manage before. The second, ‘Compound Uncertainty,’ compels leaders to probe the edges of the digital frontier to nudge regulatory, cultural and technology tipping points. Finally, the third disruptive force, ‘Boundary Blurring,’ forces industries to merge and morph into one another.”
* Resolution Revolution: The effect of being able to see and sense what is happening in both the physical and digital worlds in ever greater fidelity and detail, then understanding and more precisely controlling things, events and outcomes.
* Compound Uncertainty: The combined and complex effects of digital change that undermine and shift the mindsets, structures and practices on which leaders have previously relied. The key uncertainties are in three areas: technology, culture and regulation.
* Boundary Blurring: The merging of digital and physical worlds, leading to alterations in the core products, propositions and possibilities for industries as we know them and softening the dividing lines between industries. The effect then cascades across ecosystems, organisations, people and things.
“There is no simple strategic method for dealing with the multidimensional nature of digital change. Even the sharpest leaders can become disoriented as change builds on change, leaving almost nothing certain,” says Waller. “Within the context of these three disruptive forces, the task is to commit to leading at three different levels: industry, organisation and self.”
Failure to lead at these three levels will cause leadership to be weak and temporary:
* Remap your industry: How must your worldview change and what fundamental industry paradigms must you rethink?
* Remodel your organisation: What does your organisation need to become and how will you redefine your company?
* Remake yourself: Who do you need to be and how must you remake yourself to thrive as a leader in the digital era?
“Digital is no longer a backing vocal; it has moved centre stage to become part of the main act,” says Raskino. “To get yourself out of the chorus line you will have to remap your industry, or quickly adjust to a remapped industry, possibly several times, as different actors test and transgress the blurring boundaries.
“You will need to remodel your organisation so that it can create and serve the new kinds of value demanded by customers in a digital world. You will have to remake yourself as a leader, taking on new skills and new personas, and be prepared to engage new kinds of professionals and apply new thinking tools. Together, the three digital forces and three leadership levels create the framework for taking digital to the core of your business and leadership style.”
