One of the FAANG's is about to take out the big D - as in Disney.

Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google are the quinary of digital brands transforming the world around us. To be totally accurate we should say FAAAN (Alphabet instead of Google). However we are old world. In this Baron's piece Jack Hough shows how close we are to the point where Netflix will over take Disney's market capitalization value. That is how fast digital start ups are catching up with traditional Goliaths.

It's like being the Captain of a huge super tanker and that can see on the radar that something is coming towards them; some distant flash of light that gets increasingly clearer as it gets closer. The problem is that it looks really different to you on radar and then in your binoculars than anything you might have ever seen before. It does not have a lot of crew on board. Just look at Disney's staffing numbers compared to Netflix employee numbers. It doesn't seem to carry oil (make money) in the same way and it doesn't seem to have the same map of the sea you use on you huge green dashboard screen in front of you. At some point you realize you both seem to be on a collision or collision avoidance course.

We are still sailing our oil tankers in much the same ways as before and expecting everything to be alright, even although we need to think and even organize differently for these new ships coming over the horizon.

We wrote about Disney's ideas and attempts to catch up or avoid an economic collision with Netflix and others last year. We wonder if they realized how close the ship was over the horizon then? We entitled it, Can Disney Pull Away from Netflix and win?

We all feel it, we sort of all know it is happening in our segments/industries, but not enough of us are acting to present our own anxious Mickey Mouse moments. What is especially concerning is how slowly we seem to be acting from the bridges of our oil tankers. Just think of these four facts from our March 2018 state of digital transformation research and our book, the Wall Street Journal best seller, The Digital Helix. You can see/listen and pull slides by clicking here.

LESS THAN 16% OF LEADERS ARE INVESTING ENOUGH IN THEIR DIGITAL DNA DEVELOPMENT

When we asked management how much further along they were against six of the Digital DNA markers than three years ago less than 1 in 6 said they had progressed 70% of what they believed to be the right levels of evolving their digital DNA. That means 70%+ have done little to nothing to re-steer their skills or organizing principles for success. We have a new digital DNA algorithm for ten industries coming out in late May that will show the specific digital transformation playbook models in play in each that can be copied, ignored or scraped from.

DEMOGRAPHICS WAS A FRIEND AND IS NOW AN ENEMY TO DISNEY. DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES IN YOUR SECTOR.

We all used to love ESPN. It was the perfect set of date nights and moments where we could sit down and un wind from the day, or maybe even get wound up given what our teams or sports were doing or not doing. We all felt invested in TV and in sports on TV. We all sort of clustered around some basic combinations of events, timing and teams, Now we love choice; when, where, who and on what we want. We have our own personal prime times and there are millions and millions of combinations. Disney, TV, etc were not built to handle a customer base that got so individualistic and so fast. Netflix does not care about when, where and what and how you consume it. That in itself is a great lesson for any marketer or seller in a digitally transformed world because you need a 24/7 attention to each customer's moments and not the historical clustered norms you have been used to for decades. Every business or Captain of their oil tanker will need to handle these new ships and in new ways.

ONLY 1 in 6 - 16% SEE DIGITAL AS THEIR CORE BUSINESS MODEL. FOR ALL THE INTENT AND DESIRE WE STILL STRUGGLE TO MATCH REALITY WITH INTENT.

The research showed that many organizations management do not see building a digital core as a priority in 2018. There are lots of great ideas about what digital transformation is and could be but there are some almost abstract challenges too. For example 50% of management told us that digital transformation investments were designed to "help them be strategically prepared for the unfolding future." Noble, thoughtful and smart. Yet less than 1 in 6 think a digital core is a priority. Digitally wrapping Disney will not protect it from digital transformation market facts and digital first companies like Netflix or other members of FAANG. 32% of us even said we need to digitally transform to keep up with competitors (other oil tankers) that are digitally transforming.

The simple paradox here is that focusing on becoming digital at our core like the 16% that are doing it will protect us in that yet to be defined future over 50% of think we are preparing for. Every other motive should be secondary to that creation of a digital core, even for Disney.

IT IS REALLY TOUGH TO CHANGE DIRECTION ON AN OIL TANKER. BUT WE NEED TO DO IT, SO WHY CAN'T WE?

The number one barrier, self stated barrier in our March 2018 research on the state of Digital Transformation (slide 10 in the presentation) is the lack of understanding about how internal challenges are not well understood and are disabling progress. It isn't IT and AI or Automation integration (6th). It isn't a lack of investment or commitment from leadership (7th) or the lack of overall money to solve it (4th). Oh and the number two reason for failure is a lack of clear strategy. It's just like the captain on the bridge of the oil tanker. No clear strategy and a lack of understanding about why others can't tell him or her that this new vessel is about to plough into them or leave them in a huge wake behind them.

In the 1990's the veritable CEO of IBM, Lou Gerstner once argued that the new Web 1.0 companies were like fireflies in the night, burning bright and fast and then fading. We still wonder if in the age of Web (choose your number) that philosophy still sits at the heart of how we think about these digital first companies. Remember from the paragraph above the list of reasons why digital transformation failure is occurring and 2nd reason was the lack of strategy and vision about digital transformation. Possibly we are seeing these new digital ships like the Fireflies in Gerstner's speech?

Leaders are seen as enabling digital transformation projects and ideas at a great rate (33%) in the research but 4 in 10 of them get slammed for a lack of clear strategy and vision.

We all seem to make this far too difficult. Just accept that this is a journey but it needs a different set of components, ideas and processes. You can't keep doing the same things and expecting different results with digital transformation so apply the ideas and frameworks from The Digital Helix to avoid being a startled Mickey Mouse. Every single one of us in large corporations needs to look out over the horizon in new ways.