Digital Transformation is a multi-facetted topic. Driven by an enabling technology.

In this
case a combination of digital and communication technologies in essence linked to the
development of the transistor, the integrated circuit and the Internet. But the impact and
perspectives on the Digital Transformation go far beyond technology including
economic, society, sustainability aspects. It impacts and change the way we live, work,
organize, date, reproduce, manage, develop etc. in the same way like electricity or
steam once created irreversible changes to our society and our lives. The Digital
Transformation can’t be understood if not taking all these different perspectives into
account, and it may even be so that it may not be fully understood until it is passed.
Such as when we describe historic transformations today, differ from how they were
reflected upon and experience at the time they occurred. Given these limitations, it may
still be well invested time to try to understand the present and predict plausible
developments.
In this assignment you will analyze and discuss the Digital Transformation taking an
industry as a starting point and look at their challenges and possible ways to deal with
these challenges. After choosing one approach, this approach will be analyzed from
different perspectives aiming to take an as broad view on Digital Transformation as
possible.
We have chosen to the media industry as it’s an industry we all have a relationship with
and views about. In addition, this is partly a historical case where we already have seen
a number of typical effects of an industry facing Digital Transformation. It may however
be argued that a lot of implications, primary and secondary effects are still to
materialize. We will here take a closer look at the newspaper or news industry.
Use external sources when required. Please give references when appropriate.
Newspaper industry

1. With the introduction of internet and later ubiquitous digital access. What
challenges did the newspapers industry face and how were challengers handled?

I often tend to compare nowadays digital tools such as social media with previous
generation’s traditional newspaper. Once, newspaper used to be the main and the most
trustworthy source of information. The people couldn’t imagine themselves passing a
week without reading newspapers. They would be outdated regarding what’s happening
in the world, their country, or even the next-door house.

However, the introduction of television first and internet later, threatened the newspaper
industry to extinction. The people had unlimited access to information. It is called the
era of information. So how could newspaper industry maintain its position as news
provider?

To do that, the news industry should follow the trend, and that’s exactly what it did.
Newspaper exploited the digital transformation and became one of the main key pivots
of it. Apart from the traditional newspaper, these industries invested a lot in developing
websites, social media pages and the corresponding marketing strategies to promote
that, in order to maintain their position as no.1 information provider of the mass.

2. What was actually the enabling tech and/or device and in what way did it have
such a significant impact?

The enabling tech that allowed the newspaper industry to keep following the digital
transformation era were electronic devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones.
The enabling medium to reach these devices was internet.

In a matter of a couple of years, these devices and internet dominated the world and our
lives. Nowadays we spend many hours every day on those bright devices. Much more
than what people did when television and radio first came out. Thus, the newspaper
industry takes advantage of that fact, to gain as much of our time, and attention, we give
to these devices. The newspaper industry might actually became more valuable
because of these technologies.

3. What approaches could the newspapers take to handle the challenges digital
technology created?

I consider the digital transformation era divided into two periods: before, and after
internet. Before internet the digital transformation refers to technologies such as
television and radio. Back then, newspaper didn’t have many possibilities of the
approach they could take in order to handle this shift. It was just more convenient for
people to follow the news in the comfort of their houses, their sofas. Going to buy
newspaper was a more difficult task, and only those that like to keep the traditions kept
doing it.

However, in the post-internet period this changed. The approach the newspapers could
take, was to adopt this technology and make the full out of it. The appearance of
technologies like smartphones, made this approach of the transition from news on
papers to news on devices, much simpler. Thus, newspapers facilitated the way
information reached people, using this approach, while at the same time they were also
benefited from this. At the same time though, the competition in this industry increased
and that was one of the main challenge the companies had to face.

An alternative approach they could take was to invest more on their marketing
strategies instead of their infrastructure upgrade (development of their websites etc).
Marketing in order to promote the benefits of reading the news on a paper instead of
watching these bright devices. This however was not the most efficient way since one
can never predict if the marketing is sufficient enough to push people keep buying
newspapers.

On the other hand, the newspaper industry could also follow the strategy of the
aggressive marketing and attacking on the outcomes of the digital transformation. For
example a strategic marketing against fake news (which is one of the outcome of the
information era) or against the “unhealthy” lifestyle that social media promote (of being
in a sofa scrolling for hours) could increase the reliability of the newspaper.

4. Chose one of the possible approaches stated. Analyze the chosen approach
from each of the following perspectives: ethics, privacy, security, sustainability,
staff, industry, company, and society.

In the end, the approach the newspaper industry chose to face the challenges of the
digital transformation, is in my opinion also the most ethical. Newspaper decided to
follow the trends of the society, and adopt a digital character to approach its customers.
By doing that, meant that they didn’t need to use any aggressive marketing, or use
other unethical methods to maintain their publicity. In fact, they themselves promoted
digital transformation to enforce their brand

The Guardian, one of the most powerful players in this industry, is one of the media
companies that chose to embrace the digital revolution, coming out as a winner out of it.
(https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/the-guardian-how-to-be-a-winner-in-a-declining-
industry/)

There were risks of privacy and security when following the adoption of digital
transformation approach. Going digital, meant that in order to be a fixed customer of
what digital newspaper have to offer, one should create an account or email and
subscribe to them. Emails and digital accounts though are vulnerable so there were
risks of exposing personal information of the customer. However, security levels of the
digital world reached very sufficient levels so that the risks of privacy and security had
been minimalized.

The digital transformation of the newspaper industry also increased their sustainability
value by stop using paper and create factories for this purpose, while at the same time
kept their identity of “caring” about the society, by providing transparent news and
information.

To do so though, those companies’ business plan had to change 180 degrees. The
staff, while not reduced in numbers, changed their character, by shifting to a more IT-
friendly and less factory labor.

Also, choosing to follow the digital approach, meant that the newspaper industry
became more competitive, since the access to information is easier than ever.
Consequently, if they wanted to stand out of the competition, they should provide to
people what they wanted.

Industry and society in general

5. What industries do you expect to be next in line to experience a similar

development and the newspaper industry and why?
Many primarily physical industries tend to extinct or completely shift the way they work.
One of the industries that is expected to be next in line of the digital age development, is
the retail (https://blog.walkme.com/digital-retail-revolution/?para1=SMQ&t=20 ).
Customers nowadays desire immediacy, high quality and personalization. Digital
retailing can fulfill these three in the maximum extent, surpassing the traditional physical
retailing. An example of that is Amazon which now worth more than 1 trillion dollars
(http://money.com/money/5386380/amazon-1-trillion-jeff-bezos-net-worth/) invests
billions to find innovative ways to improve the customer digital experience.

6. What emerging technologies do you expect to further drive the Digital

Transformation and why?

VR and AR are emerging technologies that will also shape the future character of many
industries. With its ability of creating simulated environments, can provide a unique
experience that no other technology can offer.

Tech experts predict a $120 billion VR market by 2022, so it's no surprise that
companies are working to integrate this technology into their repertoire. VR has many
practical business applications. One of the most promising is within human resources
and the process of recruitment or onboarding ( https://blog.walkme.com/virtual-reality-
boost-human-resources/?para1=SMQ&t=20 ). These technologies can impact the way
the processes that demanded our physical presence, work by digitalizing them.

7. What effects of the Digital Transformation do you foresee in general that have
not been that significant yet and what?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) had been around for years. This topic had already reached – or
was considered it reached – a peak, in the past. But the technology that could enable its
power was not present at that time.

The appearance of the digital transformation though, revived this topic, since computers
now are able to apply the methods of AI digitally, with a remarkable accuracy. For that
reason, AI became a big talk again in the scientific community, and we have taken
many steps to develop it in the maximum extent since then.

However, the capabilities of AI are not bounded, and the development of it is much
faster than our insights on how to apply a unified legislative and technological
framework to keep it in the right track. Thus, I expect the discussions about the
technological boundaries that we should apply on AI, to be more significant in the future.