Digital transformation to a network society

Digital transformation is often misunderstood.?

People trip over the digital part, which is a technology thing, but technology only makes things smarter, faster, and better. If you had a horse, you would have a smarter, faster, better horse.?

However, transformation doesn't mean upgrade. It means fundamental change. As if a caterpillar who walks and eats leaves transforms into a butterfly, a creature that flies and drinks nectar. This is a fundamental change. Just as fundamental as that fast horse transforming into a car.

What does this mean for organizations?

Let's see an example. I can rent out my house digitally: that's Airbnb. But Airbnb itself is not the digital transformation. That would be, for example, if we were to rent out houses and we'd transfer ownerships to blockchain.

That would be a fundamental change.

Traditional society is changing to a digital network society. Any organization that has to deal with that has to go through a mental transformation — as big as going from renting houses with contracts to having a blockchain system of distributed contracts and ledgers.