Here is the executive summary of a report completed by Gerald C. Kane, Doug Palmer, Anh Nguyen Phillips, David Kron, and Natasha Buckley for MIT SLoan Management Review that explains how an organization can become a digitally mature enterprise. To read the report, download it if you wish, check out other resources, and obtain subscription information, please click here.

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Executives who think they’re in a technology arms race are focusing on the wrong area: The “2015 Digital Business Global Executive Study and Research Project” by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte identifies strategy, not technology, as the key driver of success in the digital arena. Conservative companies that avoid risk-taking are unlikely to thrive — and they’ll also lose talent, as employees across all age groups want to work for businesses committed to digital progress. The report is available online and as a PDF, and the online version includes a Digital Business Interactive Tool with interactive charts to explore the data set.

MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte’s1 2015 global study of digital business found that maturing digital businesses are focused on integrating digital technologies, such as social, mobile, analytics and cloud, in the service of transforming how their businesses work. Less-mature digital businesses are focused on solving discrete business problems with individual digital technologies.

The ability to digitally reimagine the business is determined in large part by a clear digital strategy supported by leaders who foster a culture able to change and invent the new. While these insights are consistent with prior technology evolutions, what is unique to digital transformation is that risk taking is becoming a cultural norm as more digitally advanced companies seek new levels of competitive advantage. Equally important, employees across all age groups want to work for businesses that are deeply committed to digital progress. Company leaders need to bear this in mind in order to attract and retain the best talent.

The following are highlights of our findings:

Digital strategy drives digital maturity. Only 15% of respondents from companies at the early stages of what we call digital maturity — an organization where digital has transformed processes, talent engagement and business models — say that their organizations have a clear and coherent digital strategy. Among the digitally maturing, more than 80% do.

The power of a digital transformation strategy lies in its scope and objectives. Less digitally mature organizations tend to focus on individual technologies and have strategies that are decidedly operational in focus. Digital strategies in the most mature organizations are developed with an eye on transforming the business.

Maturing digital organizations build skills to realize the strategy. Digitally maturing organizations are four times more likely to provide employees with needed skills than are organizations at lower ends of the spectrum. Consistent with our overall findings, the ability to conceptualize how digital technologies can impact the business is a skill lacking in many companies at the early stages of digital maturity.

Employees want to work for digital leaders. Across age groups from 22 to 60, the vast majority of respondents want to work for digitally enabled organizations. Employees will be on the lookout for the best digital opportunities, and businesses will have to continually up their digital game to retain and attract them.

Taking risks becomes a cultural norm. Digitally maturing organizations are more comfortable taking risks than their less digitally mature peers. To make their organizations less risk averse, business leaders have to embrace failure as a prerequisite for success. They must also address the likelihood that employees may be just as risk averse as their managers and will need support to become bolder.

The digital agenda is led from the top. Maturing organizations are nearly twice as likely as less digitally mature entities to have a single person or group leading the effort. In addition, employees in digitally maturing organizations are highly confident in their leaders’ digital fluency. Digital fluency, however, doesn’t demand mastery of the technologies. Instead, it requires the ability to articulate the value of digital technologies to the organization’s future.

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Here is a direct link to the complete report.

Gerald C. Kane is the MIT Sloan Management Review guest editor for the Digital Transformation Strategy Initiative.

Doug Palmer is a principal in the Digital Business and Strategy practice of Deloitte Digital.

Anh Nguyen Phillips is a senior manager within Deloitte Services LP, where she leads strategic thought leadership initiatives.

David Kiron is the executive editor of the Big Ideas Initiatives at MIT Sloan Management Review, which brings ideas from the world of thinkers to the executives and managers who use them.

Natasha Buckley is a senior manager within Deloitte Services LP, where she researches emerging topics in the business technology market.