AI’s rapid advancements have showcased capabilities that seem almost human-like—sometimes even superhuman. For many, this triggers feelings of inadequacy along with the desire to give up. But surrendering is neither necessary nor productive. The reality of our relationship with AI is more nuanced than a simple battle of human versus machine. It requires thoughtful reflection and a reframing of how we approach our roles and strengths in an AI-driven .....more

Why do generic leadership qualities and training recipes spell failure for digital transformation initiatives?

In 2019, the director of the newly minted Digital Services Lab at JOB Co. found himself on the brink of a crucial meeting with the company's chief executive officer. The focal point of their impending discussion rested on the stagnation of progress in the Mentor 2.0 project—an initiative conceived to embody an agile paradigm in digital transformation, championed by an inventive Scrum team. Despite the project's noble intentions, the journey .....more

Teaching note for product W34087.

Teaching note for product 9B19M046.

In June 2018, the executive vice-president of Networks and Information Technology of KPN BV (KPN), Bouke Hoving, was evaluating the digital transformation of KPN, the leading telecommunications company in the Netherlands. Hoving had been an initiator of a turnaround that had started at KPN in 2014, after a financially and operationally hectic year. The entry into the market of over-the-top digital services, which used the Internet to bypass platforms .....more

At the end of 2012, the chief information officer (CIO) at UCB, a global pharmaceutical company based in Brussels, started to implement analytics as a service. Between 2012 and 2016, he put this vision into practice, introducing agile sprints and proving the competence of analytics within the organization, and at the beginning of 2016, he felt the company was ready to upgrade its analytics capability. As he prepared to meet with UCB’s chief executive .....more

Teaching note for product 9B18E002.

In the digital space, what is the next big thing? Nobody knows. Nevertheless, today’s companies are under pressure to discover it. But chasing the digital holy grail can jeopardize management’s focus on what’s really important—digital transformation. One can read many books on how companies can accelerate digital transformation. But before you start planning, you should make one simple commitment: build digital into every project. Every opportunity .....more