April 2015

By Ralf Dreischmeier, Karalee Close, and Philippe Trichet

As entire industries are disrupted by bold digital entrants and business models, more and more companies are at risk of extinction. Music, retailing, media, and travel are far along on this path, but we are also seeing similar patterns in more traditional industries, such as banking, agriculture, energy, health care, industrial goods, and manufacturing. Digital strategy and transformation must therefore be a top priority of the CEO and the senior management team. Companies can’t just dabble at the edges by appointing a charismatic chief digital officer or CIO, adopting the latest shiny technologies, or “letting a thousand flowers bloom.” The digital imperative calls for more fundamental action in five areas.

Prototype Your Strategy

When consumer needs and competitive landscapes are rapidly evolving, it’s no longer possible to craft a long-term strategy, assign responsibility and performance targets, and execute a three- to five-year plan. “Agile” methods successfully pioneered in software development at companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter have shown real advantages through learning by doing, rapidly and frequently delivering working products inspired by real consumer needs, developing innovative delivery methods and value propositions, and adapting to changing requirements.

Leading digital companies test and refine, or prototype, products and strategies in close cooperation with customers and at a dizzying pace. For example, Amazon has introduced e-readers, tablets, smartphones, cloud services, delivery services, and online marketplaces—all within the past ten years. We have found that this test-and-refine approach can greatly inform the world of strategy. (See Exhibit 1.)

A company’s organization and culture must also support digital transformation, with structures, governance, and incentives that promote speed, risk taking, and experimentation—rather than kill disruptive projects before they bear fruit. (See “Breakthrough Innovation Culture and Organization,” BCG article, October 2014.)

Consider how European automaker Renault is prototyping a multichannel strategy. The company’s goal is to digitize and strengthen customer relationships across channels to develop a simpler and more personal relationship with the brand. In order to achieve that goal, Renault is simultaneously piloting several strategic approaches: developing digital services to connect cars to Internet-based offerings in areas such as navigation, entertainment, and insurance; testing new business and operating models such as the optimization of the total cost of ownership across a vehicle fleet; and adapting its marketing and sales processes in Renault Stores and company call centers.

In just seven months,Renault also built the foundation of a 360-degree view of customer data from models of the customer journey that spotlight “moments of truth” in which the company has an opportunity to influence a decision,convert customers to a sale, or build loyalty. The company can then integrate that foundation with a tool to manage customer leads that unites disparate data  from internal and external sources. Renault is now implementing these IT approaches as a pilot project in France for 32 million customer accounts, with a plan to deploy them across 25 countries after learning what works.

Disrupt Your Business (Before Others Do)

Executives need to create  their own “digital attacker” businesses.  Long-dominant companies are increasingly under attack  from a host of digital start-ups that are out to reinvent businesses and industries by addressing consumer needs in completely new ways. Examples are emerging in every industry:just look at Uber in the taxi business and Airbnb in travel. And the pace of disruption is rapidly increasing.Digital disrupters are themselves constantly under attack,  as witnessed by the start-ups targeting established companies such as Facebook, itself once a disrupter. (See Exhibit 2)

Incumbents should be more disruptive in their approach and not leave the playing field open. Large companies hold a lot of cards—including resources, assets, relationships, and data—that smaller competitors frequently do not have enough of. But they often do not fundamentally rethink their business model. Only rarely do they launch anything that might attack the current business.

CEOs must think broadly and holistically about how to innovate around the unmet needs and pain points of their customers. Digital transformation is not only about a website and a sexy marketing campaign; more important, it’s about entirely new business opportunities.

For example,

BBVA is beginning to act  like a

venture capital firm that seeds start-ups and enables innovation. BBVA’s venture-capital arm, BBVA Ventures, invests in start-ups and incubators working on disruptive technologies for the financial industry. BBVA is also launching digital bank initiatives with a focus on creating an innovative customer experience, including a promise of no minimum balances and none of the usual fees. Its peer-to-peer money app, Wizzo, allows users to transfer money to others as easily as sending a text message, without requiring an account. The product joins BBVA Wallet，which is already the biggest mobile-payment app in Spain, and BBVA Link, the first money-transfer app on Facebook in Latin America.

Digitize the Core Business

Top management must take advantage of digital capabilities to transform the current business. This isn’t just about rolling out new IT projects but also about fundamentally transforming the company’s business to ensure leanness, agility, and lower cost. Best-in-class companies think “end to end” about where digital efforts can produce a step change in performance and value for their customers—not only in marketing but also in operations and the back office. And they tackle many efforts in parallel, using standardized processes and agile techniques to accelerate execution and inject more flexibility into strategy.

To deliver an integrated, lean customer experience, global energy-management specialist  fundamentally transformed several core processes. One transformation covered marketing, sales efficiency, and customer care through a dedicated effort led by the executive team. Redesigning processes to focus on the customer experience, standardizing front-office processes, and moving processes to the cloud delivered a strong foundation for a more integrated customer experience, consolidated more than 300 legacy customer-relationship-management systems, and integrated numerous enterprise-resource-planning systems.

A test-and-learn approach across 90 countries, four lines of business, and 30,000 employees delivered results every quarter. Performance significantly improved. For example, Schneider increased revenues bycross-selling energy solutions, improved customer satisfaction  by routing customer service online, and increased call center efficiency by consolidating call centers from 145 to 45.

 Create value from Data

Agile leaders try to find ways to better use internal and external data. BCG research shows that leaders in the use of big data generate 12 percent higher revenues than companies that don’t experiment with big data. They are three times more likely than weak innovators to mine big data for new-project ideas and to actively target innovation toward digital design, mobile products and capabilities, speed of adopting new technologies, and big-data analytics. (See “A Digital Disconnect in Innovation?” BCG article, October 2014.)

Digital transformation offers companies new opportunities to gain sustainable competitive advantage from data and to generate entirely new revenue streams, business units, and stand-alone businesses by capitalzing on the data they hold. (See “Seven Ways to Profit from Big Data as a Business,” BCG article, March 2014.) For example, Verizon’s Precision Market Insights service offers access to anonymized data about shopping habits, interests, travel, and mobile browsing derived from a sample of the company’s more than 86 million wireless customers. A leading European cruise line developed pricing in a highly segmented and targeted way on the basis of a customer’s profile, the timing of the price being offered, and the product offering, thanks to the use of advanced analytical tools and technologies.

Position Your Business in the Broader ecosystem

Companies must secure their place in the broader ecosystem—the network of companies, individual contributors, institutions, and customers that interact to create mutual value. Digital ecosystems are disrupting businesses in nearly every consumer-centric industry through close collaboration among partners, institutions, and customers. Ecosystem players join forces with external companies working toward a common goal and achieve complete alignment of the value chain.

Collaboration across a broader ecosystem creates new opportunities to address consumer needs. Technical foundations, or platforms, that allow devices, applications, data, products, and services to work together in new ways become core to strategy. Current owners of the customer relationship risk potential disruption from platform owners and marketplaces that allow the components of the ecosystem to easily collaborate and interconnect. (See “The Age of Digital Ecosystems: Thriving in a World of Big Data,” BCG article, July 2013.)

Philips, founded in 1891, is innovating as an ecosystem player in health care by collaborating with telecommunications, health-services, and logistics providers to create a new “service ecosystem” to support seniors at home. The Lifeline service consists of a pendant with a button that, when pressed, sends a radio signal to a hub device in the person’s home, which places a call to an emergency response center by means of a landline or AT&T’s cellular network.

Ecosystems also play a role in sourcing key talent. Digital talent thrives best in open, collaborative, experimental cultures where team members can learn and grow and be around a critical mass of similar talent, rather than in top-down, micromanaging bureaucracies that spread digital talent thin and stifle innovation. Leading players collaborate with incubators, universities, and other institutions to gain access to critical talent. We also see leaders experimenting with “digital factories”—functions that are set up differently from the core business, providing an ecosystem of talent to support internal digital initiatives.

Leaders in the digital age are different from leaders in the past. They prototype an agile strategy and learn from their experiences. They attack their own businesses before disrupters do. At the same time, they digitize their core business and get the most value from both their existing and external data, all the while mastering the digital ecosystems they operate in. 

To be sure, companies that embrace 

 the digital imperative take on a fundamental transformation of their business, including some strategic and execution risk and disruption. But to do otherwise risks a fate worse than disruption: extinction.

About the Authors

Ralf Dreischmeier is a senior partner and managing director in the London office of The Boston Consulting Group and the global leader of the firm’s Technology Advantage practice. He has developed technology and digital strategies for clients in financial services, telecommunications, media, and consumer goods, and supported multiple large-scale business and technology transformations. You may contact him by e-mail at dreischmeier.ralf@bcg.com.

Karalee Close is a partner and managing director in BCG’s London office and the global topic leader for digital, big data, and advanced analytics in the firm’s Health Care practice. Over the past 20 years, she has worked at the intersection of technology and health care across many sectors, including biopharma, medical technology, payers and providers, software, and telecommunications. She spent eight years in hospital management before joining BCG. You may contact her by e-mail at close.karalee@bcg.com.

Philippe Trichet is an expert director in BCG’s Paris office, specializing in digital transformation. Before joining BCG, he developed a track record for delivering rapid results through agile, large-scale digital change-management initiatives, including ten years as a senior vice president of digital customer experience for a global specialist in energy management. You may contact him by e-mail at trichet.philippe@bcg.com.

The authors would like to thank Nadjia Yousif and Marc Schuuring for their contributions to the development of this article.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm and the world’s leading advisor on business strategy. We partner with clients from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors in all regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their enterprises. Our customized approach combines deep in sight into the dynamics of companies and markets with close collaboration at all levels of the client organization. This ensures that our clients achieve sustainable competitive advantage, build more capable organizations, and secure lasting results. Founded in 1963, BCG is a private company with 81 offices in 45 countries. For more information, please visit bcg.com.

Original link：https://www.bcg.com/zh-cn/publications/2015/digital-imperative.aspx

2015年四月

作者：拉尔夫·德雷希迈尔（Ralf Dreischmeier）、卡拉里·克洛斯（Karalee Close）、菲利普·特里谢（Philippe Trichet）

数字侵入者（entrants）及其商业模式颠覆了全行业形态，使越来越多的企业面临倒闭的风险。音乐、零售、媒体和旅游业的数字化势不可挡，但我们在银行业、农业、能源业、医疗保健业、工业产品和制造业等传统行业也发现了类似模式的发展。因此，首席执行官及高级管理团队的当务之急是对企业进行数字战略规划和数字化转型。但公司不能在数字技术上浅尝辄止，仅仅通过任命有魅力的“首席数字官”或“首席信息官”，或仅采用各式闪亮新兴技术，营造“百花齐放”的表象是不可取的。数字化转型要求在五个领域采取彻底的行动。

建立战略原型

当前消费者需求和竞争格局迅速变化，企业不可能再像以往那样制定长期战略、分配责任和绩效目标或执行三到五年的计划。而谷歌、亚马逊、脸书和推特等公司的成功开创的“敏捷开发”（Agile）方式，通过在实践中学习、经消费者启发快速频繁地推出产品、开发新的推广方式和价值主张（value proposition）并适应不断变化的需求，在软件开发领域中显示出真正的优势。

在与消费者的密切合作中，领先的数字企业正在以惊人的速度对其产品和策略进行测试、改进或规范化。举例来说，在短短十年内，亚马逊已经推出了电子阅读器、平板电脑、智能手机、云服务、快递服务及在线商城等诸多产品。我们发现，这种测试-改进的方法可以对战略产生极大影响。（见表1）

公司的组织和文化也必须支持数字化转型，并通过结构、治理方式和激励措施的配合以促进效率、风险承担水平和试验能力的提高，而不是在突破性项目获得成果前就将其扼杀在摇篮中。（见《突破性创新文化与组织》，BCG文章，2014年10月。）

考虑下欧洲车企雷诺公司如何建立多渠道策略的原型。其目的是通过多种渠道使客户与企业的关系数字化并得到巩固，使客户与品牌建立一种更为简单且私密的关系。为达成该目标，雷诺公司同时推出了数个战略手段进行试验：开发数字服务，将汽车与导航、娱乐和保险等领域通过互联网的产品连接起来；测试新的业务和运营模式，如优化汽车总体拥有成本（Total Cost of Ownership，TCO）；调整雷诺商店和客服中心的营销和销售流程。

在短短七个月的时间里，雷诺还从客户旅程的模型中建立了360度全方位客户数据，聚焦于一些“关键时刻”，在这些时刻，公司有机会影响客户决策，将其转化为实际销售或建立忠诚度。然后，该公司可以将该数据基础与一个工具相结合，以管理来自内部和外部来源的不同数据结合起来的客户导向。雷诺公司现正在法国3200万客户对这些IT手段进行试验，并计划在了解有效手段后将其部署到25个国家。

先人一步，颠覆业务

高管们需要创建自己的“数字颠覆者”业务。当前长期占据领先地位的企业正受到一大批数字初创企业的挑战，这些初创企业试图以全新方式满足消费者需求，从而重塑企业乃至全行业形态。每个行业都有这样的例子：只要看看出租车行业的优步（Uber）和旅游行业的爱彼迎（Airbnb）就知道了。行业颠覆的步伐还在不断加快。数字颠覆者自身也经常受到挑战，例如，曾一度身为行业颠覆者的脸书公司，也正面临初创企业的挑战。（见表2）

在任者应该在他们的方式上更具颠覆性，而不是让竞争环境保持开放。大型企业拥有包括资源、资产、关系和数据在内的众多优势，这往往是小企业欠缺的。但大型企业很难从根本上反思自己的商业模式，也很少会推出任何可能冲击当前业务的产品。

首席执行官们必须全面地思考如何围绕客户需求和痛点进行创新。数字化转型不仅仅是一个网站和一个诱人的营销活动；更重要的是，它关乎全新的商业机会。

例如，西班牙对外银行（BBVA）已开始像风险投资公司一样，为初创企业提供资金，推动创新。BBVA的风险投资部门BBVA Ventures为开发金融业颠覆性技术的初创企业和孵化器提供投资。BBVA还正在推出数字银行，专注于革新用户体验，取消了最低余额和服务费等。其旗下的P2P货币应用Wizzo，使用户无需账户就可像发送短信一样轻松转账。目前，这款产品已经加入了西班牙最大的移动支付应用BBVA Wallet及拉美地区第一款脸书上的转账应用BBVA Link。

核心业务数字化

企业高级管理人员必须充分利用数字能力，推动当前业务转型。这不仅指推出新的IT项目，还意味着从根本上改变公司的业务，以实现其精简化、灵活化和低成本化目标。领先的企业认为“端对端”（end to end）数字成果在市场领域、运营领域乃至后勤领域都能为客户带来性能和价值的显著变化。这些企业同时处理许多工作，使用标准化进程和敏捷开发技术提高执行效率，为战略注入更多灵活性。

为给客户提供更一体化、简洁化的体验，全球能源管理专家施耐德电气（Schneider Electric）对一些核心进程进行了彻底转型。在执行团队领导的专注努力下，转型覆盖了市场、销售效率及客户服务。通过重新设计业务流程关注客户体验，使前端办公流程标准化，并将流程转移到云端，为一体化的客户体验提供了坚实基础，对超过300个传统客户关系管理系统进行整合，并集成了众多企业资源规划系统。

该公司拥有一个覆盖90个国家、4条业务线和30000名员工的测试-学习方式（test-and-learn approach）每一刻钟都会提供结果，使得性能获得显著提高。例如，施耐德通过交叉销售能源解决方案增加了收入，通过在线客户服务提高了客户满意度，并将客服中心从145个整合为45个，提高了客服中心效率。

从数据中挖掘价值

一些灵活的领导者试图对内部和外部数据进行充分利用。波士顿咨询公司（BCG）的研究表明，使用大数据的领导者比不使用该技术的公司创造的收入高出12%。他们通过挖掘大数据获得新创意，积极瞄准数字化设计、移动产品和功能，采用新技术的速度和大数据分析的可能性比创新能力低的领导者高三倍。（参见《创新存在数字脱节吗？》BCG文章，2014年10月。）

数字化转型为企业提供了新的机会，使其能够从数据中获得可持续的竞争优势，并通过利用现有数据创造全新的收入流、业务单元和独立业务。（参见《从大数据中获利的七种方式,》BCG文章，2014年3月）。举例来看，威瑞森（Verizon）的精准营销洞察（Precision Market Insights）服务提供了对购物习惯、兴趣、旅行和移动浏览的匿名数据，这些数据来自该公司8600多万无线客户的样本。如一家领先的欧洲邮轮公司采用了先进的分析工具和技术，根据客户资料、报价时间和产品提供情况，以高度细分和有针对性的方式制定了价格。

将业务立足于更广范围内的生态系统

公司必须确保其在更广泛的生态系统中的地位，即公司、个人贡献者、机构和客户之间的网络，这些网络相互作用以创造共同价值。通过合作伙伴、机构和客户之间的密切合作，数字生态系统正给几乎所有以消费者为中心的行业带来颠覆性变化。生态系统参与者与外部公司共同努力达成目标，实现价值链的完全结合。

在更广范围内的生态系统中的合作创造了满足消费者需求的新机会。允许设备、应用、数据、产品和服务以新的方式协同工作的技术基础或平台成为了策略核心。由于平台所有者和市场能够使得生态系统中的各个部分轻松地协作和连结，当前客户关系的所有者可能会受到干扰。（见《数字生态系统时代：在大数据世界中茁壮成长》，BCG文章，2013年7月）

成立于1891年的飞利浦公司正在通过与电信、医疗服务和物流供应商合作，创建一个新的“服务生态系统”，为行动不便的老年人提供帮助，成为医疗领域的生态系统参与者。“生命线服务”（Lifeline service）体现为一个带有按钮的挂件，当按下该按钮时，该挂件会将无线电信号发送到老人家中的数据设备，数据设备通过固定电话或AT&T的蜂窝网络向应急中心拨打电话。

数字人才在开放的、协作的、实验性的文化中最能茁壮成长，在这种文化中，团队成员可以学习、成长，并与一大批类似的人才相处，而不是在自上而下、微观管理的官僚机构中，这种机构将数字人才分散开来，扼杀创新。领军企业正在与孵化器、大学和其他机构合作，以获得高水平人才。我们还看到，企业领导人在试验“数字工厂”——其职能不同于核心业务，而是提供人才生态系统，以支持实现企业内部的数字举措（digital initiatives）。

数字时代的领导者不同于过去的领导者。他们建立了敏捷开发策略的原型，并从他们的经验中不断学习。他们抢在颠覆者之前率先对自己的企业进行转型。与此同时，他们将自己的核心业务数字化，并从现有和外部数据中获取最大价值，同时对自己所处的数字生态系统有着充分了解。

可以肯定的是，拥抱数字需求的公司会对其业务进行彻底转型，这可能导致战略、执行风险以及一定程度的混乱。但如果不这样做，企业将面临比混乱更糟糕的命运：倒闭。

关于作者

拉尔夫·德雷希迈尔（Ralf Dreischmeier）是波士顿咨询集团（Boston Consulting Group）伦敦办事处的高级合伙人兼总经理，也是该公司技术优势（Technology Advantage）业务的全球领导者。他为金融服务、电信、媒体和消费品领域的客户制定技术和数字战略，并支持多项大规模的业务和技术转型。您可以通过dreischmeier.ralf@bcg.com与他联系。

卡拉里·克洛斯（Karalee Close）是BCG伦敦办事处的合伙人和常务董事，也是该公司医疗保健实践中数字、大数据和高级分析的全球领导者。在过去的20年里，她在许多领域的技术和医疗保健的重合地带工作，其中包括生物制药、医疗技术、支付者和提供者、软件和电信。在加入BCG之前，她在医院管理部门工作了8年。您可以通过close.karalee@bcg.com与她联系。

菲利普·特里谢（Philippe Trichet）是波士顿咨询公司巴黎办事处的专家主管，专注于数字转型。在加入BCG之前，他通过灵活、大规模的数字化转型管理计划，为实现快速成果创造了良好的业绩记录，其中包括担任全球能源管理专家数字化客户体验高级副总裁10年。您可以通过电子邮件trichet.philippe@bcg.com与他联系。

作者们还要感谢纳贾·优素福（Nadjia Yousif）和马克舒林（Marc Schuuring）对本文所作的贡献。

波士顿咨询集团（BCG）是一家全球管理咨询公司，也是全球领先的商业战略顾问。集团与来自所有地区的私营、公共和非营利部门的客户合作，发掘他们的最高价值机遇，解决他们最关键的挑战并对其进行改造。我们的定制化手段能够深入了解公司和市场动态，并与客户组织的各个级别进行密切合作，以确保客户获得可持续的竞争优势，建立更有能力的组织，并确保长远的成果。波士顿咨询集团成立于1963年，是一家私营公司，在45个国家设有81个办事处。有关详细信息，请访问bcg.com。

原文链接：https://www.bcg.com/zh-cn/publications/2015/digital-imperative.aspx

译者：dominique