After being named the "best bank in the world", DBS set its sights to be "the best bank for a better world" in its third wave of transformation. This meant concerted organizational efforts towards responsible banking, responsible business practices, and creating social impact. The bank leveraged its digital capabilities (now a key competitive advantage) to drive these wider social changes around sustainability and to seize new market opportunities for growth. Yet, a host of VUCA factors (e.g., economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions, hybrid work, Web3 & DeFi, and next-gen AI) continue to emerge on the horizon. How can DBS aim to do good and do well in this new wave of transformation? Even as DBS continues to pivot towards a new agile and AI-augmented way of working, what are some strategic next steps it should consider, as it ponders the future of banking?

Companies whose executives are digitally savvy outperform other companies on growth and valuation by large margins. But less than 10% of companies have digitally savvy top teams in place. Research from the MIT Sloan School of Management's Center for Information Systems Research describes the level of digital savviness found in top teams, the business value it delivers, and the actions you can take to increase the digital savviness of your company's executives.

Many organizations are embarking on digital transformation to be future-ready. However, there is a lack of conceptual clarity on the underlying design logic of a future-ready enterprise. A digitally transformed enterprise must be ready to respond to unpredictable dynamism and pervasive digitalization. Such an enterprise must incorporate the duality of exploitation and exploration as well as the fusion between business and technology into its organizational design. This article presents a framework based on the digital transformation journey of DBS Bank and draws new managerial insights for driving digital transformation strategically.

To drive growth in digital ecosystems, companies need to develop two partnering capabilities: digital readiness and curation. Digital readiness requires that ecosystem value is distinctive and that partners are digitally organized and connected via technology such as APIs. Curation requires that ecosystem partners share joint goals, benefits, and information. Both capabilities are positively correlated with higher ecosystem market share and higher revenues.

Companies whose boards of directors have digital savvy outperform companies whose boards lack it: Among companies with over $1 billion of revenues, 24% had digitally savvy boards, and those businesses significantly outperformed others on key metrics such as revenue growth, ROA, and market cap growth. Companies can improve their boards by knowing what characteristics to look for in existing and new board members, managing board agendas differently, and cultivating new learning opportunities.

This case presents the second phase of DBS Bank's internationally acclaimed digital transformation. Upon completing the first phase (2009-2014) of the transformation that radically "rewired" the entire enterprise for digital innovation, DBS initiated its second digital push in 2015 to address ever-emerging threats from fintech companies and institutional constraints on acquisition-led organic expansion. To DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets, this digital transformation was an on-going journey in building a next-generation enterprise. It centred on developing the core capabilities to be ready for a digital future, i.e., the agility to scale technology infrastructure, to delight customers, to connect with ecosystem partners, and to innovate in ways that are unimaginable today. The case details how DBS was preparing these capabilities by undertaking three fundamental "philosophical shifts": to reinvent DBS by becoming digital to the core, embedding DBS in the customer journey, and creating a 26,000-person start-up. The case also highlights the bank's methodology for measuring financial value created by digitalisation; DBS is believed to be the first bank in the world to have done so. Furthermore, the case describes DBS's latest strategic move to embark onto its next stage of transformation, i.e., to reorganise the company around (technology) platforms.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Companies today will have to reinvent themselves to survive, and every large and ambitious company should be trying to figure out how to become a destination for its customers. Consumers are voting with their mobile devices and choosing from a handful of dominant "ecosystem drivers"-businesses such as Amazon and WeChat, which become destinations for their customers'needs by offering complementary or sometimes competing services -for each domain in their lives.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. There are four different pathways that businesses can take to become top performers in the digital economy. Leadership's role is to determine which pathway the company should pursue -and how aggressively to move.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. The business world is rapidly digitizing, breaking down industry barriers and creating new opportunities while destroying long-successful business models. Given the amount of turmoil digital disruption is causing, authors Peter Weill and Stephanie L. Woerner of the MIT Center for Information Systems Research say it's time for companies to evaluate these threats and opportunities and create new business options for the more-connected future of digital ecosystems. In recent research, board members at large companies estimated that 32% of their company's revenue would be under threat from digital disruption in the next five years; 60% of board members felt their boards should spend significantly more time on this issue next year. Despite the threats from companies including Uber, Airbnb and Amazon, increasing digitization offers opportunities for companies to leverage strong customer relationships and increase cross-selling, the authors argue. The authors offer a framework, supported by examples, for helping managers think about their competitive environments. "The combination of moving from value chains to ecosystems and increasing consumer knowledge,"the authors write, "provides business leaders with four distinct business models, each with associated capabilities and relationships."Companies can choose to operate as (1) suppliers, (2) omnichannel businesses, (3) modular producers or (4) ecosystem drivers. The authors found that businesses focused narrowly on value chains were at a disadvantage compared with those that thought more broadly about their business ecosystems. Companies that had 50% or more of their revenues from digital ecosystems and understood their end customers better than their average competitor saw 32% higher revenue growth and 27% higher profit margins than their industry averages.

This case chronicled the digital transformation of DBS Bank in seeking regional growth amidst a new digital era in the Asian banking industry. Led by its CEO, DBS invested heavily in technology and undertook radical changes to 'rewire' the entire enterprise for digital innovation. Key thrusts of its digital transformation strategy involved the revamp of its Technology and Operations organization, the development of scalable digital platforms, the leverage on technology to redesign the customer experience, and the internal incubation and external partnering in seeking new digital innovation. However, questions remain whether DBS has done enough to put digital at the heart of banking? What should be the next steps in their digital strategy? Where should the bank direct its technology investment dollars? How can DBS systematically assess the opportunities and threats of digital disruption in the banking industry and devise a set of possible strategic responses? How can DBS stay at the forefront of digital innovation to become the Asian Bank of Choice for the New Asia?

As businesses have entered new geographies, developed new products, opened new channels and added more granular customer segments, they have made their offerings more complex with the intention of adding value. But, as a seemingly inevitable consequence, companies also have made it more difficult for customers to interact with them and more unwieldy for their employees to get things done. For organizations, there has thus been a trade-off between good and bad complexity. In the digital economy, however, companies can finesse this trade-off and increase value-adding complexity in their offerings while keeping processes simple for customers and employees. Consider Amazon.com Inc.'s 10 million products, which create value without confusing customers, thanks to simple customer-facing processes that use digital tools such as search, recommendations, customer reviews and seller ratings to help site users choose among the many available products. Another example is Royal Phillips, which uses and reuses digitized platforms -and is able to offer locally differentiated products in 60 categories in more than 100 countries. The authors explain how companies can achieve their "complexity sweet spot"in the digital age -that is, the maximum value from varied and integrated product offerings with the simplest processes. The authors'research suggests that companies operating in this complexity sweet spot outperform their industry competitors on profitability. There are several routes to the sweet spot. One of the biggest decisions is who will lead and manage a company's complexity, as no one executive (save the CEO) really oversees all product and service development and operations. Whoever is leading a company's search for the complexity sweet spot needs to lead a cultural change to embed complexity management into the company's DNA. The good news, according to the authors, is that there are almost always quick wins, and the rewards are, well, sweet.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. A company's digital business model describes how the enterprise interacts digitally with its customers to generate value. The authors argue that it's time for companies to create a great digital business model before their customers leave them behind. A great digital business model will often challenge the status quo in the company: It can cause an organization to change how work gets done, who does the work and where it invests to best serve customers online. A digital business model often cannibalizes or changes the company's physical channels. And that is true whether the company is a born-on-the-Web company like Amazon, a large oil company or a local business just starting to focus on the best way to connect with customers online. The authors have created a framework to help enterprises compete digitally with three capabilities: their content, customer experience and platform. They illustrate the framework with case studies of top performers like Amazon, Apple, LexisNexis and USAA and results from an effective practices survey. They also include a self-assessment tool to help with next steps.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Although IT portfolio management has been a best practice for some time, many companies still generate substandard returns from their IT investments. Points out that investing the right amounts in the right IT asset classes is only the first step--a suite of interlocking business practices and processes collectively labeled "IT savvy" must complement IT portfolio management techniques. The benefits of establishing such practices add up to a tangible IT savvy premium: higher net profits and other performance gains. Cites a range of organizations in which IT savvy is ingrained, informing many of the companies' business decisions and sharply focusing their IT investments. Draws on the findings of a multiyear survey to review the different IT assets in which companies invest before discussing the gap in IT investment returns that separates those with IT savvy from those without. Presents five hallmarks of IT savvy and offers a series of practical suggestions for how managers can start to match IT savvy with the IT asset mix.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Uses two different studies--a survey of CIOs at 256 enterprises in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia/Pacific region and a set of 40 interview-based case studies at large companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Carlson Companies, UPS, Delta Air Lines, and ING DIRECT--to conclude that when senior managers take the time to design, implement, and communicate IT governance processes, companies get more value from IT. Toward that end, they offer a single-page framework for designing effective IT: a matrix that juxtaposes the five decision areas (principles, architecture, infrastructure, business application needs, and prioritization and investment decisions) against six archetypal approaches (business monarchy, IT monarchy, federal, duopoly, feudal, and anarchy). Illustrates how successful companies use different approaches for different decisions to maximize efficiency and value for both IT and the overall enterprise. Offers recommendations to guide effective IT governance design.

Senior managers often feel frustration--even exasperation--toward information technology and their IT departments. The managers complain that they don't see much business value from the high-priced systems they install, but they don't understand the technology well enough to manage it in detail. So they often leave IT people to make, by default, choices that affect the company's business strategy. The frequent result? Too many projects, a demoralized IT unit, and disappointing returns on IT investments. What distinguishes companies that generate substantial value from their IT investments from those that don't? The leadership of senior managers in making six key IT decisions. The first three relate to strategy: How much should we spend on IT? Which business processes should receive our IT dollars? Which IT capabilities need to be companywide? The second three relate to execution: How good do our IT services really need to be? Which security and privacy risks will we accept? Whom do we blame if an IT initiative fails?

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Executives make few moves more critical than their decisions about which technology infrastructure investments will promote future strategic agility. To pinpoint best practices, three IT experts marshaled 10 years of data from 89 leading enterprises. One finding was that when companies describe their IT infrastructure capabilities as services instead of equipment (say, the provision of a fully maintained laptop computer with access to all company systems and the Internet), they do a better job of putting a value on what they are buying. Understanding the 70 IT infrastructure services that emerge consistently from the research can help executives identify which investments will make sense for which strategic business initiative. And understanding whether the contemplated initiative is supply side, internally focused, or demand side can help managers decide whether to make the infrastructure investment on a business unit level or enterprisewide. The authors find that leading companies are making regular, systematic, modular, and targeted IT infrastructure investments on the basis of overall strategic direction. If other companies can learn to recognize which IT infrastructure capabilities are needed for which kinds of initiatives, they can have some assurance that the investments they make today will serve the strategies of tomorrow.

This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Creating a business-driven IT infrastructure requires that executives thoroughly understand their firm's strategic context. By formulating a series of business and IT maxims--short simple statements of the business' positions--they can identify the IT infrastructure service suited to their company. The authors' framework has four components: First, consider strategic context. What business demands, roles, and relationships are critical to infrastructure decisions? Second, articulate business maxims. The maxims should focus employees' attention on the firm's competitive stance, the extent of coordination across units, and the implications for information and IT management. Third, identify IT maxims. From the business maxims, executives identify IT maxims. The maxims specify the role of IT and levels of investment relative to competitors, whether processing is tailored or standardized, and how different types of data are accessed, used, and standardized. Finally, clarify a firm's view of IT infrastructure. A company should determine how it sees infrastructure from among four views: none, utility, dependent, and enabling. It can forgo synergies among units and not invest in infrastructure services, use the infrastructure primarily to reduce costs, make investments primarily to respond to current strategies, or overinvest in IT infrastructure to provide flexibility in responding to long-term goals.