Understanding The Digital Age

Everybody knows that we live in the digital age. But what exactly is it? How does it operate? And how does it differ from the industrial era?

Although digital computing was a pervasive feature of the workplace in the second half of the 20th century, and some large computer firms emerged, including IBM and Microsoft, the net benefits of computers in the 20th century were not obvious. Nobel-Prize-winning economist Robert Solow spoke for many when he wrote in 1987 that “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”

In the 20th century, ‘digitization’ generally meant the computerization of industrial-era work processes and methods. There were some spectacular wins, such as the decoding of Hitler’s messages at Bletchley Park in the 1940s and NASA’s triumphant moon landing in 1969. In general, computerization enabled a great deal more work to be done, but when this was implemented within bureaucracies, net economic gains were hard to find .

In the first decade of the 21st century, the situation changed with the emergence of search at Google, Apple’s iPod and iPhone, Amazon’s shopping network, and Facebook’s social media. Soon everything humans did was being reinvented.

To most people, these innovations were like magic. Very quickly, digital transformed how we work, how we communicate, how we get about, how we shop, how we play and watch games, how we deliver health care and education, how we raise our children, how we entertain ourselves, how we read, how we listen to music, how we watch theater and movies, how we worship, in short, how we live. The transition was accelerated by the pandemic of 2020 .

Customers and users could see immediate benefits in their lives from digital services that were providing value that was instant, frictionless, intimate, and often free. The firms responsible nurtured images of joyous workplaces with free food and ping pong tables, combined with public pledges, like ?“don’t be evil .” This helped these firms acquire an initial reputation as customer- and user-friendly firms that were good for society. It was only later that the need to regulate these firms’ missteps emerged.

By the 2010s, Wall Street began to realize that digital software was “eating the world ,” and started valuing firms accordingly.

When digital firms used these new, more agile ways of creating value , they could move more quickly, operate more efficiently, mobilize more resources, attract more talent and use it more effectively, win over customers more readily, and enjoy more elevated market capitalizations.

Industrial-era firms that had not mastered these new ways of creating value found it difficult to catch up with those that had. Attempts at digital transformations by industrial-era firms often led to disappointment . Even when successful, the efforts usually didn’t turn the firms into digital winners. For that to happen, deeper change was needed.

If you’d like to learn more about what you and your firm need to do to prosper in the age of digital, here are three opportunities.

• Enroll in my FREE WEBINAR “Winning in The Age Of Digital” (1 hour online on August 25) Register here .

·???????If you'd like to listen to the world's top experts discuss these issues in depth, then join me at the WORLD AGILITY FORUM on September 25-26 (6 hours online) Speakers include Aaron Bjork (Microsoft), Curt Carlson (former CEO, SRI), Michael Lurie, Darrell Rigby, Vivek Wadhwa Raymond Hofmann, Rita McGrath, Carlota Perez, Bill Fischer and Annika Steiber. Details here.

·???????Register yourself—and your team—in my EXECUTIVE TRAINING COURSE ‘Winning in The Age Of Digital’ on Oct 27, Nov 3 & 10. (12 hours, online) More details here . Register here ???????????

Online EXECUTIVE TRAINING COURSE Oct 27; Nov 3 & 10

This interactive course is for executives—individually or in teams—who want to enhance their understanding and leadership skills for the age of digital. The course will cover six key areas:

·???????Learning how to inspire others to change through leadership storytelling and lead from anywhere in the organization.

·???????Understanding the difference between industrial-era management and digital-age leadership.

·???????Mastering the three basic laws of the digital-era organization.

·???????Learning how to innovate by systematically creating new customer value.

·???????How you can create new businesses, digital platforms, and business ecosystems.

·???????Learning how to diagnose the status of your Agile initiatives and digital transformations.

Register here

Learn more here

The participants at the April iteration of the executive training course were unanimous in recommending the course. "Inspiring!" "Mind blowing!" and "Life changing" were some of the adjectives used.

Got a question about the course? For example, what's involved in enrolling your whole team, please send me an emai l. I'd be delighted to hear from you.

I hope you will join me in these exciting events.

P.S. ?Read some of my recent Forbes articles about the age of digital:

·???????Why Computers Didn’t Improve Productivity

·???????How Microsoft’s Digital Transformation Created A Trillion Dollar Gain

·???????How An Obsession With Customers Made Microsoft A Two-Trillion Dollar Company

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