Available now to pre-order: The Digital Transformation Roadmap

Great news to share in this first issue of my newsletter: I have just received the final digital files that were transmitted to the printers… meaning that my next book is on its way to warehouses around the world!

I am so excited to share with you the product of years of research, learning alongside business leaders, and countless hours of writing and rewriting:

“THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ROADMAP:
Rebuild Your Organization for Continuous Change”

Thank you

Many of the folks receiving this newsletter are business leaders and entrepreneurs who I have intersected with over the years—in the classroom, in the board room, and onstage at various events.

None of this book would have been possible without the questions you raised, the experiences you shared, and the invitations to collaborate and advise you on your own journeys of digital transformation.

Here’s to you for sending me on this journey!

If you haven’t seen one of my recent speeches previewing the book, here’s a quick overview –

About the book

Today, every business is talking about digital transformation. With the acceleration of new technologies, every organization knows it must adapt to survive. But by their own admission, 70 percent of businesses are failing to transform. Across industries, established companies are held back by bureaucracy, inertia, and old ways of working. How can businesses break through to drive real change?

The Digital Transformation Roadmap provides every leader with the answer. In it, I argue that businesses must transform not just products and business models―they must transform the organization itself. Based on two decades of research and advising companies around the world, I identify the five biggest barriers to digital transformation: vision, priorities, experimentation, governance, and capabilities. I then show how any business can evolve by heeding the lessons of companies such as Disney, Walmart, Mastercard, Air Liquide, and the New York Times Company.

The Digital Transformation Roadmap provides a practical blueprint for organizational change, illustrated with real-world case studies and step-by-step planning tools. My aim is to show every leader how to think beyond the churn of new technologies and rebuild their organization for a world of constant change.

One small favor?

If you are considering buying the book—for yourself, your team, your boss, your spouse—please go ahead and pre-order the book right now on Amazon.

Yes, it won’t ship for a few more weeks, but… as any author will tell you, it is a BIG DEAL for the launch of a new book how many of its initial orders are placed BEFORE the publication date. (Trust me, it’s all about the algorithms)

I will be eternally grateful if you do.

In fact, my team is planning right now a special invitation-only thank you for those who do pre-order the book.

F.A.Q.

In the weeks to come, I will use this newsletter to dig in deep on many of the topics and tools in this new book, and to connect them to some of the most pressing concerns facing businesses right now, in the day-to-day.

But to start, let me try to answer a few questions that I’ve already started to hear (at keynote speeches and in my live and online classrooms) about the new book…

Is this a sequel? How does it relate to your last book, The Digital Transformation PLAYBOOK?

Yes. The Digital Transformation Roadmap was written, from its inception, as a sequel to my last book, the “Playbook,” which I published in 2016.

The new book was inspired by all that I learned in the last seven years, and all the questions I have received from companies that took to heart my last book’s message to look beyond the technology and truly focus on rethinking your business.

So, this new book does not replace the last one. Instead, it is meant to sit alongside it—the second half of the story, if you will.

What’s the difference? What does this look at that your prior books did not cover?

The “Playbook” focused primarily on strategy: How do we set aside the preconceptions we inherited about our industry, our competition, customers… (often based on outdated thinking from the predigital era) and truly “rethink” the business we are in?

My new book, the “Roadmap,” focuses on the organization: How do we transform our existing organizations, so they are capable of the kind of continuous, rapid change required by the digital era?

In my years advising business leaders since the “Playbook” was published, I discovered firsthand that the biggest barrier to digital transformation (DX) is actually organizational change. Our established businesses need to be rebuilt to be much more agile, adaptive, and nimble—so they can continuously reinvent themselves in the accelerating digital future. It was clear to me that businesses needed a roadmap for doing this right—so I created one.

Are there strategic planning tools in this book, like in your previous books?

Yes, absolutely. The Digital Transformation Roadmap has 8 strategic planning tools designed to apply within your own team, function, business unit, or enterprise.

These tools—like the Four Stages of Validation, the Problem/Opportunity Matrix, and the Corporate Innovation Stack—have been “road tested” with numerous companies, to make sure they are flexible and straightforward enough that anyone can use them (without my help), no matter your business or your industry.

More importantly, the book is written to be applied and put to work immediately. It is structured as a five-step “Roadmap” for driving change in your own organization. My hope is that everyone who reads it will not only draw ideas and inspiration, but will use the Roadmap to apply those ideas directly in their own organizations.

Who is this book meant for?

The Digital Transformation Roadmap is written for any organization that is seeking to adapt to the rapidly changing digital environment, the constant change of new technologies, new competitors, new customer expectations… and the new possibilities afforded to every business to create and capture new value.

It is a book for CEOs and for those on the front line. I have learned through years of work on digital transformation initiatives that real change happens only if everyone at every level of the organization is engaged, and driving digital growth and innovation from where they sit. I hope that includes you!

Keep in touch

That’s it for this week. I look forward to seeing you all next week.

Please feel free to comment, or to hit reply to this email.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and learn from your experiences driving change, so I can reply to your questions in the newsletter issues to come.

See you soon!

---