Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt
Arun Arora, Peter Dahlstrom, Klemens Hjartar, and Florian Wunderlich
Amazon Publishing (February 2020)

“The fog comes on little cat feet”…digital change sounds like a stampede  of water buffalo

Carl Sandburg’s metaphor is better than his poem and digital change now really does occur faster and with greater impact than ever before. Moreover, its speed and impact are certain to increase in months and years to come. Much faster times await.

In this volume, Arun Arora, Peter Dahlstrom, Klemens Hjartar, and Florian Wunderlich share what they and their colleagues at McKinsey have learned about how digital winners (individuals as well as companies) “set direction, learn, and adapt” better than anyone else.

“This book is for senior executives who are frustrated by the slow pace and limited return on investment (ROI) of their digital transformation, and are unsure of what’s holding them back.”

As they then explain, “We know that change will never be this slow again. To win in this world, you have to be first. To be first, you have to be fast. And to be fast, you have to be smart. That last part is critical. Lots of transformations fail because incumbent companies mistake activity for speed. Unless that activity is advancing a carefully crafted strategy, the company is apt to sprint off in the wrong direction.”

What to do? “To achieve what we call digital velocity — the ability to set direct and when to flat out.ion, learn, and adapt — companies have to know when to take it slow and chart a deliberate path and go flat out…One of the hardest things for incumbents to grasp is just how fast to go. They don’t understand the power of digital, so they set the bar too low…Digital transformations are hard. They’re hard because they’re bigger and more complex than anything most people have ever done. When they set out, leaders need to think deeply about what the desired end state is. They actually need to go slower than they think.”

These are among the “whether or not” determinations that the co-authors can help their reader to make:

o The strategy now in place is being rushed or needs to be accelerated to achieve the given strategic objectives (See Chapter 1)

o The given transformation model is the right [i.e. most appropriate] one (Chapter 4)

o The current workforce is up to the challenges it faces (Chapter 9)

o Those involved in the transformation have the necessary IT capabilities (Chapter 12)

o Communication at all levels and in all areas is effective throughout the given enterprise (Chapter 17)

o You and your associates are ready to see the transformation through to completion, no matter what (Chapter 18)

In this context, I am again reminded of an observation by Thomas Edison: “Vision without execution is hallucination.”

Arun Arora, Peter Dahlstrom, Klemens Hjartar, and Florian Wunderlich provide an abundance of information, insights, and counsel that can “help executives think differently about what they are trying to achieve so they can break through the problems they encounter and accelerate the [successful] transformation of their companies.”

Obviously, the value and impact of this material are almost wholly dependent on how well the material is absorbed and digested, then on how effectively relevant portions of it  applied to the given circumstances.

Here are three points of my own that I presume to offer. First, business leaders must think innovatively about innovation. Old wine in new bottles is still old wine…and perhaps sour. Also, there are no digital issues, only [begin italics] business [end italics] issues. Finally, business leaders need to keep this observation by Peter Drucker clearly in mind: “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”