Chapter 9: Agility for Successful Digital Transformation

In 1996 Nicholas Negroponte wrote that ‘being digital’ was almost genetic and that every generation would become more digital than the one that preceded it (Negroponte, 1996). Looking at the digital and technological changes that took place over the last five years in an ever-growing number of companies, we must recognise the almost prophetic nature of what Negroponte wrote in 1996. Results from a profound change process at a technological and organisational level that cannot be achieved by accident but built over time instead.

Digital transformation is upsetting those classic competitive paradigms, and no sector or company is immune to that. Traditional competitive advantages are continually changing, so they require agility and clarity of objectives. The real challenge is not to decide what will be done, but to have a successful model structured to manage the transformation process in a reactive, flexible, and sustainable manner (Notarnicola & Carvelli, 2017). Many business cases are offering some concrete examples of this approach. At the end of 2016, the Volkswagen group defined its vision for 2025, becoming a world leader in sustainable mobility. This represented a revolution for a group with a total identification with the product (‘Das Auto’, the car by definition): the goal is clear, however, is it possible to define the different milestones of this path right now?