Many of us assume that the leadership handbook must be completely rewritten for the digital age. Is this true? Or are we overly focused on what's changing and thus neglecting the fundamentals? There is something to be said for both arguments. While many core leadership skills remain the same, the demands of digital disruption call for certain new ones, as well. This article explores which are which and what we can learn from organizations that are digitally maturing.
In the 2018 Digital Business Report, MIT SMR and Deloitte find that digitally maturing organizations encourage distributed leadership and a healthy appetite for experimentation.
In the 2017 Digital Business Report, MIT SMR and Deloitte find that digitally maturing companies are achieving success by increasing collaboration, scaling innovation, and revamping their approach to talent.
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review Article. Competition for digitally savvy talent has never been higher, but companies' methods for acquiring and keeping the skilled employees they need are outmoded. Whether they want to develop capabilities in employees or tap on-demand talent markets - or some mix of both - human resources directors need to experiment with new talent management models.
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review Article. Digitally savvy executives are already aligning their people, processes, and culture to achieve their organizations' long-term digital success.
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Successfully incorporating today's digital technologies requires companies to work in new ways. To explore how digital technologies are changing the way companies do business, MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte surveyed more than 4,800 respondents and interviewed 19 business and thought leaders. The central question the authors asked: How are companies using digital technologies -such as social media, data and analytics, mobile devices and cloud computing -to compete and operate differently? Using results from these quantitative and qualitative data, the authors provide insights on the state of digital business and what managers need to know and do to navigate and benefit from these trends. A key concept behind this research is digital business maturity. The authors asked survey respondents to "imagine an ideal organization transformed by digital technologies and capabilities that improve processes, engage talent across the organization, and drive new and value-generating business models"and then to rate their company against that ideal on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the closest to the ideal). Forty-five percent of respondents placed their companies in the middle or "developing"group (ratings 4-6), while 29% put their companies in the higher "maturing"category (ratings 7-10). The remaining 26% placed their companies in the lower "early"group (ratings 1-3). Perhaps the main insight is that the key drivers of digital transformation are not the digital technologies themselves but business factors -in particular, strategy, culture and talent development. Effective digital strategies are less about acquiring and implementing the right technology than about reconfiguring the business to take advantage of the information these technologies enable.
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. This year's MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte1 global survey found clear evidence that companies across industries are creating value with social business. A key finding is that social business value is a function of what we call social business maturity -the breadth and sophistication of its initiatives. In this year's report, we detail the drivers of that maturity and how companies are using social business to transform their organizations and reap greater gains from their social business efforts.
MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte have been exploring the impact of social media on business over the past three years through surveys, data analysis and interviews with executives and academics. The latest survey explored whether companies are deriving value from their social business initiatives. Sixty-two percent of managers surveyed report that their organization's social business initiatives are at least somewhat successful at meeting their stated business objectives, while 63% of respondents report that social business has positively affected business outcomes at their company. Fifty-nine percent of respondents in multinational companies report that social business helps them operate across geographies. Perhaps equally compelling is the extent to which individual employees indicate the value of social business to their daily work. Fifty-seven percent of respondents say that it is at least somewhat important for them to work for companies with mature social business practices, while 46% of respondents say that social business is at least somewhat important for decision making in their day-to-day role. A key factor in whether companies are able to derive positive benefits from social business is social business maturity. The researchers asked survey respondents to envision a company with ideal social business practices and then to assess how close their company was to that ideal. The higher a respondent rates his or her company, the more likely they are to report that the company is deriving business value from its social business initiatives. For example, 92% of respondents from the companies with the most mature social business practices say that social business helps them operate across geographies.
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Social technologies are becoming more important to business, according to a survey conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte. However, the adoption of social technologies often means changing the way people work, and that means executives need to invest time and effort in explaining the purpose and value of using the new tools, as well as providing the necessary financial and organizational supports to sustain these work flow changes over time. The authors'research is based on two surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012, as well as dozens of interviews with executives and social business thought leaders. The 2012 survey had more than 2,500 respondents from 25 industries and 99 countries. According to its findings, 52% of managers say their companies are at an early stage of developing social capabilities. For these managers, the top barriers to using social business are a lack of strategy, no business case and a lack of management understanding. The authors explain the importance of three types of senior leadership support for initiatives that rely on social technologies: (1) support for these initiatives over time, not just when they are launched, (2) executives'own use of social technologies as a signal of their importance, and (3) a pragmatic attitude about what to measure and when to measure results from these initiatives. As marketers capitalize on social tools, the relationship between CMOs and CIOs can change, and some organizations are hiring chief digital officers, the authors note. They observe that successful social business initiatives can produce changes in the way executives work together.