The Seven Principles Of Digital Business Strategy

If we are creating most of our competitive advantage at the strategic planning stage, why are we spending so little time on this and so much time on technology? This book is not about why you should digitally transform and become more strategic; it’s about how. It lays out the steps that must be taken, the data that should be used, and the decision tree to be followed. Following the principles laid out in this book allows organizational leaders, marketers, and technologists to talk at a high strategic level without getting bogged down in the tactics and delivery that consumes most of the time, attention, and activity in the modern workplace. Use the seven principles of digital business strategy to define the direction of travel for your business in today’s digital economy.

“A clear and crisply written account of machine intelligence, big data and the sharing economy. But McAfee and Brynjolfsson also wisely acknowledge the limitations of their futurology and avoid over-simplification.” —Financial Times In The Second Machine Age, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson predicted some of the far-reaching effects of digital technologies on our lives and businesses. Now they’ve written a guide to help readers make the most of our collective future. Machine | Platform | Crowd outlines the opportunities and challenges inherent in the science fiction technologies that have come to life in recent years, like self-driving cars and 3D printers, online platforms for renting outfits and scheduling workouts, or crowd-sourced medical research and financial instruments.

Digital transformation is no longer news--it's a necessity. Despite the widespread threat of disruption, many large companies in traditional industries have succeeded at digitizing their businesses in truly transformative ways. The New York Times, formerly a bastion of traditional media, has created a thriving digital product behind a carefully designed paywall. Best Buy has transformed its business in the face of Amazon's threat. John Deere has formed a data-analysis arm to complement its farm-equipment business. And Goldman Sachs and many others are using digital technologies to reimagine their businesses. In Driving Digital Strategy, Harvard Business School professor Sunil Gupta provides an actionable framework for following their lead. For over a decade, Gupta has studied digital transformation at Fortune 500 companies. He knows what works and what doesn't. Merely dabbling in digital or launching a small independent unit, which many companies do, will not bring success. Instead you need to fundamentally change the core of your business and ensure that your digital strategy touches all aspects of your organization: your business model, value chain, customer relationships, and company culture. Gupta covers each aspect in vivid detail while providing navigation tips and best practices along the way. Filled with rich and illuminating case studies of companies at the forefront of digital transformation, Driving Digital Strategy is the comprehensive guide you need to take full advantage of the limitless opportunities the digital age provides.

Digital Business Strategy responds to the need for clarification of the increasing, but fragmented, knowledge of digital business strategy. It systematically presents topical knowledge by reviewing previous research and developing frameworks for the content of digital business strategy and its relationships with relevant factors. In addition, the book analyses issues encountered by individual companies when implementing digital business strategies. The volume identifies key categories of digital business strategy, in particular, strategy scope and direction, competitive advantage, and resource and capability reliance. It then explores relationships with antecedents such as digital experience, relationships with obstacles and enablers of strategy implementation, and relationships with operational and financial outcomes. The author demonstrates that strategy content and relationships differ among manufacturing companies, retailers, digital content providers, and digital platforms and also presents ways to cope with issues of implementation. In summary, the book provides readers who wish to know more about the growing field of digital business strategy with up-to-date and systematic knowledge. It will be of great value to students at an advanced level, researchers, and reflective practitioners in the fields of technology management and strategic management in particular.

"A must read for anyone who wants to be successful with their digital marketing." - Greg S. Reid, bestselling author of Three Feet from Gold The 7 Critical Principles of Effective Digital Marketing is an attempt at establishing a baseline for one of the most tumultuous and change-ridden industries in existence. It takes a step back from the strategies and tactics that most digital marketing approaches start with and, instead, establishes a core and foundational structure from which all digital marketing initiatives can and should operate. The 7 Principles are simple without being simplistic and help to align digital marketers with a set of axiomatic, unchanging and foundational beliefs. In fact, these 7 principles may be the only thing about digital marketing that won't change. A note from the author: Oh, look! You're reading the synopsis. That means I've got another sentence or two before you get bored and jump ship to go roam greener pastures. I get that, I do the same thing all of the time. Here's the problem with my book: That sexy little tidbit that you're looking for...you know, that hint, tip, trick, hack, best practice, "whatever" that'll make you an instant digital marketing demigod...it ain't here. I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm not saying Santa doesn't exist either. Here's what I am saying: maybe, just maybe, we're doing this wrong. I said "we" because I'm one of you! I'm a professional digital marketer (10 years and running!) and I do the same stupid thing that all of us are guilty of. I go out hunting for quick-fix content that'll give me some sort of blueprint to success as if digital marketing genius comes in a template. That's exactly why I wrote this book. Yes, strategies, tactics and best practices are important. But more important than any of that, something truly irreplaceable and a prerequisite to any lasting success: Principles. Here's the problem that I face: Principles aren't sexy! They just aren't. Tips and hacks and all of that crap, easy to sell. But principles...' Yawn! So, dear reader, I issue you a warning: if you're looking for that casual read that'll just drop a couple of little nuggets to simply make you sound smart the next time you're at a conference, I invite you to look elsewhere. (You're looking for dessert and I'm offering up that deep-dish beef stew your mom used to make on rainy days.) However, if you want the real deal, feet on the street, decade in the making, principle-centered, value driven, foundational approach to digital marketing: You found it. It's time we put down our plastic spiderman sporks and pick up the fine silver so we can sit at the big boy table with every other industry. It's time for digital marketing to have a principle-centered foundation. I hope you'll join me. Thug life, Kasim

In a world of fierce global competition and rapid technological change, traditional strategies for gaining market share and achieving efficiencies no longer yield the returns they once did. How can companies drive consumer preference and secure sustainable growth in this digital, social, and mobile age? The answer is through functional integration. Some of the world's most highly valued companies—including Amazon, Apple and Google—have harnessed this new business model to build highly interactive ecosystems of interrelated products and digital services, gaining new levels of customer engagement. Functional integration offers forward-looking brands a unique competitive edge by using transformative digital technologies to deliver high-value customer experiences, generate repeat business, and unlock lucrative new business-to-business revenue streams. Connected By Design is the first book to show business leaders and marketers exactly how to use functional integration to achieve transformative growth within any type of company. Based on R/GA's pioneering work with firms at the forefront of functional integration, Barry Wacksman and Chris Stutzman identify seven principles companies must follow in order to create and deliver new value for customers and capture new revenues. Connected By Design explains how functional integration drove the transformation of market-leading companies as diverse as Nike, General Motors, McCormick & Co., and Activision to establish authentic brand relationships with their customers, enter new categories, and develop new sources of income. With Connected by Design, any company can leverage technological disruption to redefine its mission and foster greater brand loyalty and engagement.

Draws on detailed case studies from more than fifty top companies to demonstrate how engaging in ethical practices can enable businesses to gain a competitive advantage, improve a brand image, secure consumer loyalty, and foster greater employee satisfaction.

Digital Business: Strategy, Management & Transformation covers all the essentials for understanding and doing business in a digital world within a single comprehensive textbook, including an introduction to the digital business environment, cutting-edge coverage of data and artificial intelligence, and an exploration of the latest digital tools and platforms and emerging and enabling technologies such as blockchain and Web 3.0. The text explores all types and scales of digital business, from small, innovative start-ups and disruptors that are ‘born digital’, to the digital transformation of traditional large-scale businesses. Readers will also learn how these businesses strategise, operate and manage themselves, user experiences and customer relationships within an ever-increasing digital environment. Consideration is also given to the ethical and legal components of doing digital business with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in mind. This textbook includes a rich source of learning features and activities making it suitable for business students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and setting students up for success on graduation in a fast-changing, digitalised and technology-led business world. Annmarie Hanlon teaches digital marketing and is Course Director for the MSc Marketing and Leadership at Cranfield School of Management in the UK. You can follow her updates at twitter.com/annmariehanlon and LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/annmariehanlon