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.

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.