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Digital Master: Debunk the Myths of Enterprise Digital Maturity by Pearl Zhu
Digital Master Introduction“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” –Peter DruckerThe Digital transformation, like the computer technology revolution itself, is a long journey. The outlines of the fully digitalized world have long been sketched, now the phenomenon of digital is reaching the inflection point, yet we are now entering an even more rapid and extensive period of change. As this notion of “digitization” is now affecting all aspects of business operations from innovation within and around business ecosystem, to customer engagement, to business models and processes – and no industry is exempt. Hence, most companies naturally aim to move into a more advanced stage of digital deployment by tailoring their own unique strength and business maturity. They hope to outstrip competitors and eventually become the digital masters. However, digitalization raises questions about leadership, strategy, culture, structure, talent, financing and almost everything else. Obviously there’s no one-size-fits-all magic formula to digital transformation success. “Digital Master” is the guidebook to perceive the multi-faceted impact digital is making to the business, with the following nine chapters to help businesses navigate through the journey and avoid the “rogue digital”: Digital Digitalization is a constant game changer for the organization. It is the age of customer; empathy is the core foundation in customer-centricity. The organizations of the future are increasingly exhibiting digital characteristics in various shades and intensity. Digital The mind-set is far more important than talent. Talent can always be developed by those with an open and right mind-set. Leaders and talent with digital transformational mind are in higher demand, as transformational leadership is all about change.Digital The whole is superior than the sum of pieces. A strategic vision for how digital will transform the business, understand the whole before you build out the pieces, and create a roadmap for implementing such transformation. Digital culture - The right culture is a prerequisite for implementing digital strategy. A great culture can support a weak strategy, but a weak culture cannot support a great strategy. A strong digital culture promotes inclusiveness, empathy, creativity and agility. Digital Capability – In-depth understanding of the “recombinant” nature of digital capabilities. The maturity of a business capability would be based on the ability to deliver on customer needs; or to achieve the desired capability outcome, catalyze organizational maturity and business competitiveness.Digital Innovation – Make a relentless commitment to innovation with expanded scope. Innovation is more often composed with the full spectrum of light, focus on not only the “hard” innovation such as products or services revolution, but also the “soft” innovation such as culture or communication evolution.Digital Intelligence – Intelligence is nothing but the ability to solve problems. A hallmark of digital age is the proliferation of data being generated. As businesses are moving slowly into an era where Big Data is the starting point - not the end. Digital Transformation concentrates on defining a comprehensive scope of change and then figuring out how to execute it with intelligence and speed. Digital Workforce – The “work is what you do, not where you go” shift is unstoppable. And businesses must be alert to the digital dynamic environment, adapt their workforce planning and development strategies to ensure alignment with future skill requirements.Digital Maturity – The purpose of such radical digitalization is to make significant difference in the overall levels of customer delight. Digital makes profound impact from specific function to business as a whole, the truth is that both the digital world and the physical one are indispensable parts of the business. The real digital transformation taking place today isn’t the replacement of the one by the other; but harmonizing the hybrid nature of digitalization and making the well combinations that create wholly new sources of value and achieve high level digital maturity. The shift to digital cuts across sectors, geographies and leadership roles, the digital transformation is now spreading rapidly to enable organizations of all shapes and sizes to reinvent themselves. But dealing with the challenge of digital change requires an accelerated digital mindset, taking an end-to-end response, building a comprehensive digital strategy, and rethinking the business and operating models, etc. The book “Digital Master” is based on numerous professional digital debates and enriched crowd-sourcing brainstorming. From doing digital to being digital, may this book share a few insights, throw some light on digital transformation, and create the value for encompassing your digitalization journey. It is the book which was born in digital era, targets to reach the broad and diversified digital a...
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First published December 18, 2014
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About the author
Pearl Zhu
32 books15 followersPearl Zhu has more than 25 years of technical and business working experience in Information Technology, E-commerce, international trading, etc. My blog has reached #10000 blog posting with 100,000,000 views wordwidely.
She is a digital visionary who can capture technological foresight, business insight, and digital leadership philosophy from multidimensional lenses and global perspectives. She also is a forward-looking digital leader who advocates business innovation and culture evolution relentlessly.
She is the author of "Digital Master" book series (28+ books), which include: "Digital Master –Debunk the Myth of Enterprise Digital Maturity," "CIO Master – Unleash the Digital Potential of IT," "Digital Valley - Five Pearls of Wisdom to Make Profound Influence," "Digital Agility - The Rocky Road from Doing Agile to Being Agile," "Leadership Master - Five Digital Trends to Leap Leadership Maturity," "Talent Master -199+ Questions to See Talent from Different Angles," "Digitizing Boardroom - The Multidimensional Aspects of Digital Ready Boards," "Thinkingaire - 100 Game-Changing Digital Mindsets to Compete for the Future," "Change Insight -Change as Ongoing Capability to Fuel Digital Transformation," "IT Innovation -Running IT for the Digital Age," "Unpuzzling Innovation - Mastering Innovation in a Structural Way," "100 Creativity Ingredients -Everyone's Playbook to Unlock Creativity," "Decision Master -The Art and Science of Decision-Making," "Digital Gaps -Bridging Multiple Gaps to Run Cohesive Digital Business," "Digital IT - 100 Q&As," "Digital Capability - Building Lego-Like Capability Into Business Competency," and "Performance Master - Take a Holistic Approach to Unlock Digital Performance," and "Digital Boardroom- 100 Q&As," "Digital FIt: Manifest Future of Business with Multidimensional Fit," "100 Digital Rules," and "12 Digital Personas," "Problem-Solving Master: Frame Problems Systematically, Solve Problems Creatively," "Digital Maturity: Taking a Journey of a Thousand Miles from Functioining to Delight," "Digital Pitfalls: How to Overcome Pitfalls on the way to Going Digital," "Digital Hybridity: How to Strike the RIght Balance for Digital Paradigm Shift," and received very positive feedback.
She is a digital visionary who can capture technological foresight, business insight, and digital leadership philosophy from multidimensional lenses and global perspectives. She also is a forward-looking digital leader who advocates business innovation and culture evolution relentlessly.
She is the author of "Digital Master" book series (28+ books), which include: "Digital Master –Debunk the Myth of Enterprise Digital Maturity," "CIO Master – Unleash the Digital Potential of IT," "Digital Valley - Five Pearls of Wisdom to Make Profound Influence," "Digital Agility - The Rocky Road from Doing Agile to Being Agile," "Leadership Master - Five Digital Trends to Leap Leadership Maturity," "Talent Master -199+ Questions to See Talent from Different Angles," "Digitizing Boardroom - The Multidimensional Aspects of Digital Ready Boards," "Thinkingaire - 100 Game-Changing Digital Mindsets to Compete for the Future," "Change Insight -Change as Ongoing Capability to Fuel Digital Transformation," "IT Innovation -Running IT for the Digital Age," "Unpuzzling Innovation - Mastering Innovation in a Structural Way," "100 Creativity Ingredients -Everyone's Playbook to Unlock Creativity," "Decision Master -The Art and Science of Decision-Making," "Digital Gaps -Bridging Multiple Gaps to Run Cohesive Digital Business," "Digital IT - 100 Q&As," "Digital Capability - Building Lego-Like Capability Into Business Competency," and "Performance Master - Take a Holistic Approach to Unlock Digital Performance," and "Digital Boardroom- 100 Q&As," "Digital FIt: Manifest Future of Business with Multidimensional Fit," "100 Digital Rules," and "12 Digital Personas," "Problem-Solving Master: Frame Problems Systematically, Solve Problems Creatively," "Digital Maturity: Taking a Journey of a Thousand Miles from Functioining to Delight," "Digital Pitfalls: How to Overcome Pitfalls on the way to Going Digital," "Digital Hybridity: How to Strike the RIght Balance for Digital Paradigm Shift," and received very positive feedback.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 12, 2015
Interesting analysis, but largely a rehash of blurbs that have been used to describe, or sell, "innovative" ideas in business and industry through the past decades. The slant on this one is flavored by 'digital', which mainly refers to lots of data.
Data mining has been around for awhile. Over the years, in my corporate capacities, I've seen efforts to define new business approaches around ideas that usually need lots of consultants, software, and modified business practices to change the course of a business. The goal is to keep the business current and viable in the new world of ---fill in the blank---. I've seen those efforts cost a lot, employ lots of contractors/consultants, cause layoffs and increased workloads for the remaining employees, and ultimately get slid under the rug after the corporate VPs hold their congratulations party and take home their big bonus. This book reads the same as all those, including James Martin, and Tom Peters, to name a few of the more famous ones.
Most of the language is 'feel good' business, so some folks who have not read it before will be invigorated. I can't help but sigh. Been there, done that. This is a shiny new work with some interesting analysis. The proof is in the pudding, not the prose. To me, business changes best in an organic manner with small adjustments along the way. All these 'revolutions' are nice to read and think about, and maybe they will shape some change in some manner--but, in my experience, revolutions, and revolutionary thought, are mainly an exercise in marketing skills.
January 11, 2015
The digital culture is fast, it's furious, and it's unforgiving; especially to those who lag behind: and by 'lag' I mean by as little as months.
It holds great potentials and great cautions, it holds the potential to create a fairer, more equal global community, and it requires of its users (especially those involved in business) a strategic vision that demands innovation and flexibility.
Digital Master is a business guide that takes this culture and its requirements and applies them in a manner different from most linear assessments of either culture or business pursuits, blending the two perspectives to consider not just the changing environments and rapidity of digital pursuits, but how new strategic vision and problem-solving capabilities may evolve from a digital emphasis on traditional processes.
It's almost a makeover of the business environment, is based not on one person's assessments but on numerous professional digital debates and crowd-sourced input, and is designed to appeal not just to managers (too many business titles focus just on this audience when addressing strategic change) but to the business organization as a whole, digital professionals, and others who would take digital mindsets and use them as self-improvement tools.
From what traits constitute a high-performance culture in the digital business world to the impact of big data and social media on business communities, chapters discuss such diverse topics as 'knowledge management' approaches, how audiences perceive value, how to consider cause and effect over traditional prioritizing, and more.
At each step of the discussion, contrast is made between traditional approaches and new business models, offering the opportunity to not just contrast and analyze digital approaches, but construct new short- and long-term avenues for digital success using the unique power of the digital environment.
The primary attribute of Digital Master is its ability to appeal to all level of business reader. Most such books on the topic narrow the focus to a specific segment of business pursuit (commonly, marketing or branding) or a specific audience (typically managers or entrepreneurs). It's rare to see a book that seeks and promotes inclusion at all business levels and is directed not just to leaders, but to workers.
The digital culture is fast, it's furious, and it's unforgiving - and part of this unforgiving nature lies in a tendency to direct information to certain audiences while leaving others in the dark. I found Digital Master to be accessible to any interested in innovative approaches, business models, and collaborative ventures - and in a culture and time when business can be exclusive and self-limiting, this is a unique approach, indeed.
It holds great potentials and great cautions, it holds the potential to create a fairer, more equal global community, and it requires of its users (especially those involved in business) a strategic vision that demands innovation and flexibility.
Digital Master is a business guide that takes this culture and its requirements and applies them in a manner different from most linear assessments of either culture or business pursuits, blending the two perspectives to consider not just the changing environments and rapidity of digital pursuits, but how new strategic vision and problem-solving capabilities may evolve from a digital emphasis on traditional processes.
It's almost a makeover of the business environment, is based not on one person's assessments but on numerous professional digital debates and crowd-sourced input, and is designed to appeal not just to managers (too many business titles focus just on this audience when addressing strategic change) but to the business organization as a whole, digital professionals, and others who would take digital mindsets and use them as self-improvement tools.
From what traits constitute a high-performance culture in the digital business world to the impact of big data and social media on business communities, chapters discuss such diverse topics as 'knowledge management' approaches, how audiences perceive value, how to consider cause and effect over traditional prioritizing, and more.
At each step of the discussion, contrast is made between traditional approaches and new business models, offering the opportunity to not just contrast and analyze digital approaches, but construct new short- and long-term avenues for digital success using the unique power of the digital environment.
The primary attribute of Digital Master is its ability to appeal to all level of business reader. Most such books on the topic narrow the focus to a specific segment of business pursuit (commonly, marketing or branding) or a specific audience (typically managers or entrepreneurs). It's rare to see a book that seeks and promotes inclusion at all business levels and is directed not just to leaders, but to workers.
The digital culture is fast, it's furious, and it's unforgiving - and part of this unforgiving nature lies in a tendency to direct information to certain audiences while leaving others in the dark. I found Digital Master to be accessible to any interested in innovative approaches, business models, and collaborative ventures - and in a culture and time when business can be exclusive and self-limiting, this is a unique approach, indeed.
July 13, 2017
The word change means to make or become different. Change begins with you! Pearl Zhu has doen a great job by putting together what the CHANGES are and how we can handle it at every level of our daily life!!! This book has given me a great insight on the word CHANGE and i'm indeed gratefulto read this. I've learned in this book how to stay focus and also how to identify issues and how to handle it. I use to have one or two challenges with my boss in the office. with this i already know what to do in order to handle my boss and i believe i will his heart. Look no further because this book has influenced my thinking and i highly recommend this for anybody who would love to think differently
August 10, 2016
Digital Master is an in-depth look at all the factors that go into creating a successful business strategy to optimize use of computer technology in business applications. It includes elements about how to communicate the strategy through the company to reduce resistance to change, how technology can help a company be more agile and respond more quickly and efficiently to competitors, and how to keep the company responding well into the future.
As a technical writer in the computer field, I really wanted to give this book four stars for it's all-inclusive view of how companies can leverage increased and effective use of computer technology to move toward success. However, comprehension of the material is marred by the large number of typos and grammatical errors. I frequently found myself rereading a sentence, trying to make sense out of the information that had become garbled because of editorial issues. This is not an issue created by the use of technical jargon and industry buzzwords; the author has done an excellent job of defining any terms she uses and clearly understands her subject.
If you're responsible to develop your company's digital strategy, you may want to give this work a look, but set aside extra time to digest it because of editorial issues.
I received a free copy of this work in exchange for a fair review.
As a technical writer in the computer field, I really wanted to give this book four stars for it's all-inclusive view of how companies can leverage increased and effective use of computer technology to move toward success. However, comprehension of the material is marred by the large number of typos and grammatical errors. I frequently found myself rereading a sentence, trying to make sense out of the information that had become garbled because of editorial issues. This is not an issue created by the use of technical jargon and industry buzzwords; the author has done an excellent job of defining any terms she uses and clearly understands her subject.
If you're responsible to develop your company's digital strategy, you may want to give this work a look, but set aside extra time to digest it because of editorial issues.
I received a free copy of this work in exchange for a fair review.
February 9, 2015
REVIEW OF ‘DIGITAL MASTER’ BY PEARL ZHU
I must admit to feeling a little overwhelmed when I was asked to review ‘Digital Master’ – despite the title this has nothing to do with music and everything to do with business structure, preparation and outlook in the digital age – digitization strategy is a subject that tends to leave me cold. Nevertheless I’m in awe of the author’s extraordinary depth of knowledge resulting from her years of experience of the topic. The volume she has produced is biblical in scope and masterful in exposition. Although evidently a work in progress (the copy I received still has editorial comments scattered throughout the text), Ms Zhu systematically covers all aspects of corporate structure. For managers of businesses wishing to explore digital opportunities, expand or restructure and ‘get it right’ in the brave new world of digital technology, this is probably the first and last word.
This is an honest assessment of a free review copy of ‘Digital Master’.
I must admit to feeling a little overwhelmed when I was asked to review ‘Digital Master’ – despite the title this has nothing to do with music and everything to do with business structure, preparation and outlook in the digital age – digitization strategy is a subject that tends to leave me cold. Nevertheless I’m in awe of the author’s extraordinary depth of knowledge resulting from her years of experience of the topic. The volume she has produced is biblical in scope and masterful in exposition. Although evidently a work in progress (the copy I received still has editorial comments scattered throughout the text), Ms Zhu systematically covers all aspects of corporate structure. For managers of businesses wishing to explore digital opportunities, expand or restructure and ‘get it right’ in the brave new world of digital technology, this is probably the first and last word.
This is an honest assessment of a free review copy of ‘Digital Master’.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews