Future Ready: The Four Pathways to Capturing Digital Value

by Stephanie Woerner, Peter Weill, Ina M. Sebastian

To be a top performer in the digital economy--to become truly future ready--you need a playbook. Now you have one.

As the world continues to become more fully digitized, it seems like almost every company you can think of--including your own--has embarked on a "digital transformation" journey. The problem is, many companies start down the road without a good sense of where they are going or a clear idea of how they will create and capture digital value. Not surprisingly, this leads to problems: failure to realize the value from digital in their bottom lines, wasted resources and effort, added complexity and dysfunction.

This compact, no-nonsense book provides a solution. In their years of working with senior executives around the world, MIT research scientists Stephanie Woerner, Peter Weill, and Ina Sebastian noticed that these leaders knew they had to transform their businesses, but lacked a coherent framework and a common language--a playbook--to guide and motivate their employees and keep everyone focused on a common goal.

Future Ready is that playbook. Based on years of rigorous research with data from more than a thousand companies--BBVA, CEMEX, DBS, Fidelity, Maersk, and many others--the book provides a powerful, field-tested "four pathways" framework that offers insights into the important dimensions at which a firm must excel in order to be competitive, as well as the organizational disruptions that every firm must manage as part of the transformation journey.

The book includes instructive examples, sharp analyses, assessments to help companies benchmark themselves against top performers, and many illuminating visuals to help crystallize the data and ideas.

Woerner, Weill, and Sebastian show that the goal isn't digital transformation but rather a profound business transformation. Future Ready is your playbook for becoming a top performer in the digital economy.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership

256 pages, Hardcover

Published October 18, 2022

Reviews

[Darya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Digital transformation remains a hot topic with a variety of strategies, approaches and frameworks that can make it successful. The final result depends on different factors and individual for each business. The value of this book is in four pathways that author's suggest to look at when driving digital transformation. Sometimes you may need a mix of strategies to execute at a time and sometimes you go one by one to achieve desired result. This book can be useful to get an overall sense of what is digital transformation in a business and how you can plan your path to get there.

[Kristen Considine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book didn’t do much for me. Maybe it’s because I’m not in a position of power or influence at this level. But as someone in an organization that is trying to be future ready, this didn’t help me really understand the process or what to expect. I think a more focused dive on the path my company has chosen maybe would’ve been more helpful to an entry level technologist. But I can understand the author trying to give you a sprinkle of each approach.

[Kiona Meade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting approach/framework for how to do digital transformations within companies. A great overview for anyone about to start or who needs to get their company’s approach back “on track.” I feel like the book was lacking in very tactical approaches to a lot of the path forward, probably in an attempt to highlight things which could be widely applicable. Still, the examples from companies are very detailed, which I appreciate.

[Sena H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for work. The intended audience is technical or transformational leaders within a firm, detailing the four possible pathways towards becoming future ready through digital transformation. I tried to apply this to my own company, but I am so low with little access to overall data of the company that I couldn’t possibly apply this to my own circumstance. Overall, well researched and straightforward.

[Aaron Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good ideas and explanations of the problems of digital transformation and how they can be overcome. Quite a few clear ideas and pointed questions to be asked when leading a transformation, although it would have been nice to dive a little deeper in some of the case studies, relating them to the experiences of those “at the coal face” of the firms.

[Elham Sarikhani · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book sets out four pathways intended to guide organizations through digital integration, these recommendations often come across as overly generic and somewhat disconnected from the nuanced challenges modern businesses face. The examples used are sometimes predictable and do not delve deep enough into the complexities of implementing digital strategies effectively.

[Miha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite meh. Very on the surface level. Lots of correlation statistics and no causation to be seen anywhere. Of course companies that haven't slept on the technological adaptation have been doing better... Duh... It does give 4 different approaches to the transformation and gives some good surface level advice, but it should be a lot more into detail to give this book some value.

[Cristina Elena | LaaA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for business and transformation management professionals

[Damian Moloney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am future ready now.

[Marinus Den breejen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of open doors.
The 4 pathways to go from “silo and spaghetti” to “future ready”:
1. Industrialize (clean op legacy, and use api)
2. Focus on experience (make customers/endusers happy)
3. Do both, but in small steps
4. Start digital native BU

All paths are ok according to the book.

Obviously, 1 is fit for core systems, 2 for CRM and customer facing apps, 3 for innovative new solutions like implementing AI or data driven solutions.
4 gives many issues and typically is not too helpful: integrating the new with the old is very difficult, but there are some scarce examples like ING direct and ING.

[Camilla Jahr]

The differences and characteristics of the four main pathways to digital and WoW modernization