Beyond Digital: How Great Leaders Transform Their Organizations and Shape the Future

by Paul Leinwand, Mahadeva Matt Mani

Digital transformation is critical. But winning in today's world requires more than digitization. It requires understanding that the nature of competitive advantage has shifted--and that being digital is not enough.

In Beyond Digital, Paul Leinwand and Matt Mani from Strategy&, PwC's global
strategy consulting business, take readers inside twelve companies and how they have navigated through this monumental shift: from Philips's reinvention from a broad conglomerate to a focused health technology player, to Cleveland Clinic's engagement with its broader ecosystem to improve and expand its leading patient care to more locations around the world, to Microsoft's overhaul of its global commercial business to drive customer outcomes. Other case studies include Adobe, Citigroup, Eli Lilly, Hitachi, Honeywell, Inditex, Komatsu, STC Pay, and Titan.

Building on a major new body of research, the authors identify the seven imperatives that leaders must follow as the digital age continues to evolve:

Reimagine your company's place in the world
Embrace and create value via ecosystems
Build a system of privileged insights with your customers
Make your organization outcome-oriented
Invert the focus of your leadership team
Reinvent the social contract with your people
Disrupt your own leadership approach

Together, these seven imperatives comprise a playbook for how leaders can define a bolder purpose and transform their organizations.

Genres: Business, Technology, Nonfiction, Leadership

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 4, 2022

Reviews

[Felipe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book and I do recommend it. In fact, I think it may well be a very good book. But there are some particularities that detract from the overall impact.

First, when you read the title "Beyond Digital" you may expect the book to discuss particularities of "being digital", and then how to go beyond it. You'd be wrong. Based on case studies, it dives straight into the seven imperatives that digital companies should try and follow to extract the maximum effect from their digital transformation. And they're good imperatives! Very complementary to what even the best companies are doing. But, since the book basically develops a dimension perpendicular to digital, it does feel like "Besides Digital" would be a better description.

Second, the ideas herein are quite practical, very C-Level oriented. But there does seem to be a bit of an idea gap, where you understand what Mr. Leinwand is recommending but not necessarily the conceptual foundation it's based on. And, just reading this book, it's not even clear where to look for it.

Now, I think Mr. Leinwand is an underrated author and I have read his previous books, "The Essential Advantage" and "Strategy That Works". Frankly, "The Essential Advantage" is a hideen masterpiece that should be obligatory strategy reading right next to "Good Strategy / Bad Strategy" and "Playing to Win". And if you come from this path, it's quite clear where he's getting at and how he got here. So if you've read them all "Beyond Digital" feels like the third book in a trilogy, except not advertised as such.

Here's my suggestion, then. For me this is a highly recommended, 4-star-book, as long as:
- you first read Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation to get the gist of the two axis of digital transformation, "Digital Capabilities" and "Leadership Capabilities", and then read "Beyond Digital" but consider it "Besides Digital" and take the seven imperatives as kind of a third perpendicular axis that build "Beyond Digital Capabilities" to differentiate your business and achieve greater success;
- OR/and read it as the third part of Mr. Leinwand's trilogy, after The Essential Advantage: How to Win with a Capabilities-Driven Strategy and Strategy That Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap;
- even better if you do both suggestions above, and complement your reading with Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters and Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works to get a full perspective of digital transformation, strategic capabilities, the intersection and synergies between them, and how different author face their particular problems.

In conclusion, kudos to Paul Leinwand. This is a great capstone to his previous works, and I particularly enjoyed the chapters on outcome-oriented teams and on the paradoxes that the future of leadership must face. Great reading.

[Darya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and engaging this book tells a story of leadership. If you embrace the advice from the book, you can create a new way of leading an organization, having a different approach to your customers and employees, building a new relationship ecosystem that will support strategic business goals.

[Hanie Noor · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Creating sustainable advantage requires more than digitisation. It requires understanding that the nature of competitive advantage has shifted—and that being digital is not enough.”

Objective: learn the selected companies transformation journey —what did and how they did it.

Literally what the title trying to portray; moving “beyond digital”. Digitising business is not enough, especially nowadays where businesses, even small business has established their virtual presence. Every single business can digitize every single thing that they have been previously doing but reimagined its role in a broader sense and how digital could help it fulfil its role.

* businesses nowadays anchored their business around trends i.e. digitisation which is obviously an external force and because it’s a trend, evolving around it alone won’t make your business sustainable. Trends are great, it’s faster profit, but not the best in the long-run —more on leadership and decision velocity

The 7 Imperatives for Beyond Digital Leadership;
- Implement digital initiatives and adapt to customer and competitors moves
- Source implements of their value chain from suppliers , distributors, and other 3rd parties
- Invest in data analytics to better understand customer behaviour
- Organise in matrix models of functional and business-unit specialisation and set up cross-functional projects to deliver change initiatives
- Give experienced leaders strong top-down authority to deliver results in their individual areas
- Implement change and communication programmes to overcome change resistance and incentivise people to take the journey
- Build on their strong suits as leaders to drive important changes

Key points;
- Company’s positioning
- Ecosystem
- Privileged insights
- Outcome-oriented teams
- Social contract
- Disruptive leadership approach —to be both strategist & executors

Just noticed inconsistency on the 7 imperatives, authors mentioned that it fits perfectly together, if you overlooked any of the imperatives you won’t be able to address others successfully and that tackling just a few of the imperatives won’t be enough. However, at the end of the book authors mentioned that executing all of it requires significant sustained effort and nearly impossible.

Recommended not just for business owners that are looking for the next step or reviving alternatives but also corporate leaders and managers alike.

Book review courtesy of #TimesReads

[Richard Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond Digital is a highly practical book on driving the transformation journey required by all companies. Its context questions 1)How do you face the world? 2)How will you organize and lead? and 3)How will leaders need to transform? These are incredible statements that the authors support through in-depth narratives and examples in the book. These questions help drive a framework that links the essential elements of transformation, as ALL 3 need to be effectively developed and delivered. One of the authors' most useful quotes is simple but powerful: "Capabilities are the link between strategy and execution." As someone that had read many books and is in the "race with a finish line" of learning, I highly recommend Beyond Digital.

[Felipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claramente definen las competencias que deben tener las empresas para ganar en el futuro

[Emanuele Gemelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting topics, but a bit boringly written

[Clive Kornitzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read for any 21st century leadership

[Juha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beyond digital? The title is misleading. This is a collection of cases written by PWC consultants wrapped in a framework. There are interesting parts in the book, but overall… two stars.

[igor valentim dos santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

an amazing immersive experience

By allowing us to learn from others experience the authors created an environment that helps the readers to feel like they were actually been part of it. Very good!!