Decisively Digital

Discover how to survive and thrive in an increasingly digital world

Digital strategy should consist of more than just updating your business’ desktop computers and buying the newest smartphones for your employees. It requires the reimagining of existing business processes and the implementation of the latest technologies into current business activity to enable new capabilities for your firm.

In Decisively Digital: From Creating a Culture to Designing Strategy, digital strategy advisor and author Alexander Loth leverages his extensive experience working with Microsoft, CERN, and SAP to deliver a robust and accessible exploration of what it takes for a company to unlock the potential of new digital technologies. You’ll discover how to:

• Utilize new technologies to establish a digital culture and realize the benefits of modern work for your employees
• Unleash the abilities that come with processing big data and taking advantage of data democracy, analytics, and cloud computing
• Implement artificial intelligence, blockchain, process automation, and IoT in a way that goes beyond the hype and delivers real business results

Packed with interviews with industry leaders and real-world customer examples, Decisively Digital is ideal for CIOs, CDOs, and other executives and professionals who need to know how technology can improve their businesses and power results today and tomorrow.

About the Author iv

Acknowledgments v

Foreword by Bernard Marr xi

Introduction xiii

Part I: Digital Strategy 1

Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Strategy 3

Strategic Topics 4

Culture 5

Collaborative Culture 6

Data-Driven Decision-Making 6

Citizen Data Science 7

Maker Culture 7

Impact 8

Digital Capabilities 9

Completing Your Digital Strategy Big Picture 10

Impact Venn 11

Digital Maturity and Organizational Readiness 12

Digital Maturity Assessment 13

Endnotes 16

Part II: Digital Culture and Modern Work 19

Chapter 2: Elissa Fink: How to Charge a Brand with Culture 21

Key Takeaways 31

Endnotes 31

Chapter 3: Patrick Kirchgäßner: Making Invaluable Pools of Information Accessible and Searchable 33

Key Takeaways 40

Chapter 4: Edna Conway: Protecting the Modern Workplace from Cyber Threats and Compliance Risks 41

Key Takeaways 48

Endnotes 48

Chapter 5: Florian Ramseger: The Future of the Digital Society 49

Key Takeaways 71

Endnotes 71

Chapter 6: Corporate Social Network to Drive Collaborative Culture as Key Enabler for Modern Work 73

Best-of-Breed vs. Best-of-Suite 74

Corporate Social Network 74

Following the Collaboration Framework 75

Driving Adoption 76

Key Takeaways 77

Endnotes 77

Part III: Data Democracy and Analytics 79

Chapter 7: Yilian Villanueva Martinez: Visual Analytics as Strategic Asset 81

Key Takeaways 89

Chapter 8: Jordan Morrow: Bringing Data Literacy to the World 91

Key Takeaways 100

Chapter 9: Lee Feinberg: Turn Data Visualization and Data Literacy into Strategic Functions 103

Key Takeaways 113

Endnote 114

Chapter 10: Sarah Burnett: Fostering a Data-Driven Culture at a Large Global Financial Organization 115

Key Takeaways 122

Part IV: Big Data Processing and Cloud Computing 123

Chapter 11: Mark Kromer: Leveraging Big Data Analytics and Cloud Platforms for the Next-Generation Data Strategy 125

Key Takeaways 135

Chapter 12: Dr. Henna A. Karna: Racing to Last Place — The Criticality of an End-to-End Data Strategy 137

Key Takeaways 153

Chapter 13: Mohamed Abdel Hadi: The Future of Data-Driven Business 155

Key Takeaways 164

Endnote 164

Chapter 14: Tatyana Yakushev: Data Visualizations and Cloud-Powered AI as Strategic Assets for Next-en Analytics 165

Key Takeaways 177

Endnotes 177

Chapter 15: Kerem Tomak: Designing a Digital Strategy for the Financial Sector 179

Key Takeaways 188

Endnotes 188

Chapter 16: Christy Marble: Connecting the Dots Across the Customer Lifecycle 191

Key Takeaways 208

Endnotes 209

Chapter 17: Data Strategy as an Essential Component of the Digital Transformation Journey 211

Three Elements of a Data Strategy 212

Big Data 213

Analytics 213

Decision-Support Tools 215

Result 215

Chief Digital Officer as Key Driver of the Data Strategy 216

Key Takeaways 216

Endnotes 217

Part V: Artificial Intelligence 219

Chapter 18: Bora Beran: Vast Amounts of Data Are Key for AI and Automation 221

Key Takeaways 232

Endnotes 233

Chapter 19: Andreas Kopp: Responsible AI in Practice 235

Key Takeaways 253

Endnotes 253

Chapter 20: Cameron Turner: Understanding the Future with Explainable AI 255

Key Takeaways 266

Chapter 21: Patrick Glauner: Everyone Needs to Acquire Some Understanding of What AI Is 267

Key Takeaways 280

Endnotes 281

Chapter 22: Vladimir Alexeev: Natural Language Processing and the Human Factory Empathy 283

Key Takeaways 292

Endnotes 293

Part VI: Process Automation, Blockchain, and The Internet of Things (IOT) 295

Chapter 23: Derek Roos: Fully Leveraging Your Human Capital 297

Key Takeaways 305

Chapter 24: André Rabold: How Digital Culture and IoT Disrupt Our Future 307

Key Takeaways 320

Endnote 320

Chapter 25: Ian Choo: The Distributed Ledger Revolution 321

Key Takeaways 333

Endnote 334

Chapter 26: Sofie Blakstad: Blockchain as a Critical Enabler Toward the Ecosystem Economy 335

Key Takeaways 354

Endnotes 355

Chapter 27: Sven Sommerfeld: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Hyper Automation Transform Today’s Business 357

Key Takeaways 367

Endnote 367

Appendix: Reciprocity: Answering Some of My Own Questions 369

In 10 Years, What Do I Think Our Work Will Look Like? 370

What Are My Favorite Apps, Tools, or Software That I Can’t Live Without? 371

Do I Have a Smart Productivity Hack or Work-Related Shortcut? 372

What Is the Best Advice I Have Ever Received? 373

Key Takeaways 373

Endnotes 374

Index 375

ALEXANDER LOTH is a digital strategist with a background in computational nuclear research, executive advisor at Microsoft, and co-founder of the fintech advisory Futura Analytics. For more than 12 years, he has advised leading companies undergoing digital transformation. Alexander has an MBA from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, where he is also lecturer on the subject of the Digital Society.

“Alexander […] has brought together some of the brightest voices and smartest thought leaders from leading organisations across many industries, to bring you unmissable insights and real-world examples to showcase how technology can improve your businesses and drive business results today and tomorrow.”
—Bernard Marr, Futurist, influencer and best-selling author of Tech Trends in Practice and The Intelligence Revolution

“Decisively Digital is decisively executive. Great experts, great interviews, and great insights combine to a crisp, cohesive and powerful story. It would be quite a mistake for any (aspiring) leader not to dive into this book, so I will definitely put it on the list of mandatory readings for my future students!”
—Markus Maedler, Director Executive MBA Programmes at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

INSIGHTS AND APPLICATIONS FROM 24 LEADERS OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Today’s business world is Decisively Digital. Across the business landscape, the leaders rising to the top are the ones who can think big-picture about data, AI, analytics, and beyond. How do we build new capabilities around digital, so we can push into the future with full steam? That’s the question at the heart of the twenty-four incisive interviews inside this unique collection of up-to-the-minute expertise from the people who are moving business forward.

With this book, your mentors are the very digital masterminds behind some of today’s top global organizations. Discover how tech giants are reinventing the world of work, how the financial sector is streamlining with data analytics, and what the latest AI research means for the businesses of today and tomorrow. You’ll also gain access to a toolkit of updates, further reading, and digital strategy ideas on the included companion website.

Discover the inspiration you need to evolve your business for the digital age and learn to:

• Establish a digital culture that empowers people to work smarter
• Implement data democracy and analytics to discover new capabilities
• Generate tangible business results using new tech tools
• Realize efficiencies with artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things
• Apply real-world examples as you build your own future-proof digital strategy

The companion website at www.decisivelydigital.org provides updates, amendments, and recommendations for further reading.