Video
With the pace of change moving faster than ever before, setting a digital strategy is increasingly challenging for executives across industries. Nate Anderson, a partner in Bain's Digital practice, shares three questions that can help companies determine the point of departure on their digital journey.
Read the World Economic Forum blog: How to Build a Digital Strategy
Read the transcript below.
NATE ANDERSON: Developing a digital strategy requires an understanding of where your industry is headed, the role your company should play in that digital future, and how to make forward progress, even when there's significant uncertainty. So first, what will your industry look like in the future? If you had a movie of your customers buying, interacting with your products and services 5, 10, 20 years from now, what would you see?
Second, what roles should your company play in that digital future? Will the assets and capabilities that differentiate you today be the same ones that differentiate you in the future, or will you need to play in a very different way to be successful? And finally, how do you make forward progress when there is so much uncertainty?
Traditional roadmaps don't work very well when there's uncertainty. They're too static, too linear, often not ambitious enough. We like to think of progress in terms of waves and stepping-stones, where waves are those successive evolutions of the business required to move your company towards its vision, and stepping-stones are those near-term, more tactical actions required to get you going. Developing a digital strategy can be challenging, but these three steps will help put you and your company on the right foot forward.
How to Build a Digital Strategy
Three questions can help companies establish the point of departure on their digital journey.