The 150-Year-Old Startup

And more lessons from the Year in Transformation

Dec 10, 2024

I’ve missed you!

My apologies for the pause in publishing—caused by a couple weeks’ illness and a packed schedule of international travel and engagements.

As we approach the year-end holidays, I thought I would take a look back on what I’ve learned in 2024 advising companies on a range of DX (digital transformation) efforts.

(If we met in person this year, don’t miss my photo roll at the end of this issue 👇)

These diverse partners gave me a look at what is happening on the frontlines around the world in a range of industries (financial services, agriculture, high tech, CPG, automotive, transportation, government).

The central themes I saw in 2024:

Standing still is impossible—amidst technology acceleration, and demographic & geopolitical change.
Transformation cannot be led by IT. It must come from the business.
Success starts with a laser focus on problems that truly matter.
Real results require changing mindset, process, and ways of working.

The 150-Year-Old Startup

I’ve had a truly rewarding experience this year working alongside a 150-year-old global industrial company—launching its very first digital product, selling software to customers for the first time.

For that product to get from “big idea” to repeatable, profitable growth has meant rapid testing and iteration.

As with any b2b sales journey, this meant validating the new business model for multiple different stakeholders.

For each stakeholder, success requires finding their most urgent problem, the value proposition they care about, and the optimal solution (UX, features, and delivery) for them.

*Top half of the Rogers Growth Navigator*

Should We Talk?

2025 is practically here.

If you’d like to accelerate the ROI on your digital efforts in the new year -- schedule a call today at services@davidrogers.digital

The A.I. Conversation

Not surprisingly, AI continued to dominate the conversation inside the C-suite in 2024. But that conversation has changed.

Leaders are no longer chasing the shiny bauble of Generative AI for its own sake.

Everyone is focused on business case, security and scalability, and the fundamental goal: measurable ROI. (We are well past the “pure” experimentation stage.)

The CFO’s perspective

September brought me in front of a group of CFO’s from across North America. Their top question: how do we find the business impact of AI?

We discussed the steps to:

Finding your “business theory” for generating an ROI
Picking the right tool from your predictive, interpretive, and generative AI tool kits
Coping with competitive advantage in the fast-moving world of AI

We looked at case studies of AI creating real business impact in financial services. And we discussed the most common mistakes that keep AI projects from achieving ROI.

The Question of DX and AI

One more question I heard from these CFOs, and throughout the year, was this: How does AI change “digital transformation”?

Probing the answer to that question led me to revamp my newest executive program for Columbia Business School.

Details, and guest speakers, at the bottom of this email… 👇

Service Transformation

Another topic I had a chance to dive into this year was the transformation of service and field operations in the digital era.

I had a unique opportunity to speak to the Service Council, a forum for leaders from companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, Home Depot, UPS, Verizon, GE HealthCare, Honeywell, Siemens, and Rolls-Royce.

John Carroll invited me to help facilitate a series of roundtable discussions with their advisory board. And I gave a keynote to their annual meeting in Chicago.

The topics we discussed included:

The “silver tsunami” of an aging workforce reaching retirement (this ran counter to the dominant narrative of “disappearing jobs” due to AI)
Leveraging AI as a copilot for human employees on your service frontlines
Lessons of change management: Crawl before you walk, before you run. And listen to your workforce (it turns out, they might have very good ideas!).

Two Stories of Japan’s DX Journey

Similar challenges were found on the other side of the world, where Japanese businesses are facing a “silver tsunami” of their own.

DX is critical to the future of the Japanese economy—amidst both technological advances, and a shrinking workforce as its population ages.

Yet, as reported in Japan’s leading business magazine, Nikkei Business, the record of DX by Japanese businesses trails other developed markets.

A shocking 40% of traditional Japanese firms have not begun a DX effort or even made plans for one. This compares with just 10% of firms in the US, 8% in Germany, and 1% in China.

40% of traditional Japanese firms have not begun a DX effort or made any plans for one.

Fortunately, Japan can boast outlier examples of real digital success.

Two traditional Japanese companies I had the privilege to work with in 2024 are profiled in the Nikkei article. Each one is embracing DX with a far-reaching vision.

Japan Railway East is focused on using digital to harness real-time information on its sprawling transportation systems, and to augment the skills of workers to maintain those systems despite a shrinking labor pool.

Insurance firm Tokio Marine Group, under the direction of Chief Digital Officer Masashi Namatame, is using AI, data partnerships, and new business models to transform its underwriting models, its claims process, and its responses during natural disasters.

Both case studies are described in detail. Thank you to Ayako Hirono, deputy editor, who interviewed me for this important article.

Human Capital for the Digital Era

I found a dramatically different set of challenges in Indonesia. The rapidly growing nation (where I spent a year of my childhood) has no “greying” workforce.

Instead, Indonesia’s challenge is to seize the “demographic dividend” of it next 15-20 years, while its youthful working age population far outstrips the nonworking population.

I was invited to speak last month to nearly 2,000 Indonesian business owners and HR leaders from across every industry, as part of the Indonesia Human Capital & Beyond Summit.

My keynote focused on how to align and develop Indonesia’s human capital for growth and transformation in the digital age.

Key themes:

Avoiding “brain drain” from companies that transform too slowly
Developing a generation of “problem-solvers”, not rule-followers
Embracing change and continuous learning for an unknown future

I’m delighted to hear that my keynote will be included as part of the Indonesian government’s blueprint towards the vision of Indonesia’s 2045 Golden Year.

National Digital Transformation Day

For the first time ever, an abridged edition has been published combining my last two bestselling books, “The Digital Transformation Playbook” and its sequel “The Digital Transformation Roadmap.”

The new edition was published in Vietnam, on what was declared to be “National Digital Transformation Day” (October 10).

The country’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh commented:

"Digital transformation has reached every alley, knocked on every door, and entered every person. The trust of all levels, sectors, localities, people and businesses has been strengthened and raised, contributing to inspiring and creating new development momentum".

Thank you to Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Manh Hung for proposing and supporting the project! And thanks to my translator Dr. Pham Anh Tuan, and our publisher PACE Business School.

The slim volume (not much bigger than my smartphone) offers a handy primer on both my books-- introducing readers to the central challenges of DX and the frameworks for effective change.

I look forward to this new edition spurring even greater digital innovation in Vietnam’s growing economy.

Order copies (in Vietnamese) here.

A Conversation on Innovation

One of my favorite interviews this year was with Aidan McCullen, on his award-winning podcast, “The Innovation Show.”

Aidan and I discussed the challenge of innovating inside a big company due to “organizational debt”—the layers of process (budgeting, KPIs, meetings, approvals) that become encrusted over time.

We discussed how to overcome these barriers through use of:

innovation governance,
smart shutdowns,
the right roles for teams and boards,
the Three Paths to Growth,
and building a corporate innovation stack.

Enjoy! (And check out part 1 here).

More Book News

It is an honor to see "The Digital Transformation Roadmap" shortlisted for the 2024 Best Business Book Award by SABEW.

I'm in great company with books like Amy Edmondson's "Right Kind of Wrong" and Charles Duhigg's "Supercommunicators."

Thank you to my amazing editorial team of Myles Thompson, Brian Smith, and Robyn Massey at Columbia Business School Publishing!

Turkish edition

I am also delighted to announce the Turkish edition of "The Digital Transformation Roadmap" available in paperback and e-book. https://bit.ly/DXR-Turkish

Big thanks to our translator Iclal Özçelik, and our local publisher Optimist Yayın Grubu. I am thrilled to have the new book in the hands of readers in this important market!

Leading DX in the AI Era (sign up now!)

In October, we launched the new version of my on-campus executive program, renamed: “Leading Digital Transformation: Rebuilding Organizations for the Age of A.I.”

I was fortunate to be joined at Columbia Business School by two terrific guest speakers –

Zach Seward, Head of AI initiatives at The New York Times – shared inside perspectives on how they are using their core mission to guide their rapid experimentation with A.I. to serve both employees and readers (customers).

Luiz Gondim, CIO of Innovative Medicine, Latam at Johnson & Johnson – spoke with us about his journey of driving transformative change by focusing on business problems and patient (customer) centric thinking, before questions of technology.

Sign Up Now!

The next program run is February 25-28, in New York City.

Guest speakers will include three incredible executives, each sharing their own stories of leading digital transformation in Walmart, the Carlyle Group, and Boeing!

▶ Apply today, if you’d like to take one of the last remaining seats in our February program: https://bit.ly/DXRoadmap-Class