Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Key insights
from the book
Since the first commercial
internet browser was
created nearly 30 years
ago, “being digital” has
been a business mantra.
2
1 Strategy& | PwC Strategy& | PwC 2
Digitizing existing
processes and systems
Enabling Implementing
people sales pipeline and
quote platforms
Improving digital
marketing practices
model of value creation that others cannot. The complexity and need for
integration make capabilities hard to replicate,
which is why companies that define themselves through
has changed. what they do rather than what they sell tend to be
distinctive and create lasting advantage.
Revolution of demand
• The internet has given customers access to more
choices and insight into the quality of these
choices.
• Being OK just isn’t good enough any more.
Transformation of context
• Executives must balance many factors (beyond
profit) when deciding how to create value.
• Stakeholders ask for transparency on ESG impact.
• Global interconnectedness has raised uncertainty
and risk.
Note: The following pages contain highlights from six of these company transformation stories. The
book Beyond Digital: How Great Leaders Transform Their Organizations and Shape the Future by
Paul Leinwand and Mahadeva Matt Mani contains the full set of 12 transformation stories.
2
revealed How your
company Embrace and create value via
7 leadership faces the
external
ecosystems
imperatives
3
world
Build a system of privileged
for transforming insights with your customers
your
organization and
shaping the How your
4 Make your organization
outcome-oriented
future.
5
company
sets itself Invert the focus of your
up to create leadership team
fundamental
6
advantage
Reinvent the social contract
with your people
Following them will help
7
secure your company’s
future in the “beyond
How you Disrupt your own leadership
digital” era. lead approach
With the definition of value itself and the model of value creation To reimagine your place in the world, ask
changing, reimagining your place in the world has become a
prerequisite to securing your relevance in the future. yourself these questions and consider
these insights:
Your place in the world
• How is the definition of
= the unique value you promise value changing? Take a point of view
• How are customer about the future
+ the differentiating capabilities needs changing?
needed to deliver that promise • What ultimate value
do the ecosystems you Use your ecosystem to
Both dimensions—the unique value you provide and your
participate in create? widen your aperture
differentiating capabilities—are what defines your company’s
• What are the real needs
place. Focusing on just one of those dimensions isn’t enough.
of the ultimate user?
What your organization does to create value and how it does it
are critical in the “beyond digital” world, where trust and
• What are the incredible
outcomes are not only sought after but increasingly demanded.
things your company is able Find your hidden powers
to do that could offer value
beyond your current products
and services?
Many of today’s unresolved problems are so massive and When people hear about ecosystems,
complex that no single company can solve them alone—you
need networks of companies and institutions that work together many think about platforms. But
toward a common purpose. platforms are just one of several flavors:
Given the pace of change, companies need to quickly scale up
capabilities. They don’t have the time or resources to build all Offers a platform and
the required capabilities on their own; they need to work with creates a marketplace
ecosystems to access the capabilities that others have built—at Platform provider
where users can connect
speed, at scale, and flexibly. (e.g., Amazon, Facebook)
Shape your technology and data priorities, using your place in Data: You need a
the world and privileged insights as a guide. Focus on what coherent data strategy to
helps you build the differentiating capabilities that are key for determine how to collect,
securing your place in the world. store, secure, govern, and
analyze data, and how to
work in data ecosystems.
Organize in a capabilities-based
model, with outcome-oriented
teams in charge of delivering
your differentiated capabilities.
With success depending From the traditional …to the capabilities-based BUs must be even
more customer-
on scaling up complex
capabilities, you must organization… organization centric, integrating
capabilities and
change how you work Board of Directors Board of Directors shaping them toward
customer needs.
and redesign your Executive Leadership Team (ELT) Executive Leadership Team (ELT)
organization to support
Corporate center Corporate center Outcome-oriented
that new way of working. teams bring together
Corp. Corp. Corp. Corp. Corp. Corp.
… … multi-disciplinary skills
You can’t get away with Strategy Finance Comms Strategy Finance Comms and deliver
plucking people out of capabilities. Unlike
Business units/regions Business units/regions typical cross-functional
their functional roles and teams, they:
HR to building
capabilities
to build more durable Total quality • have their own
outcome-oriented Finance budget and
teams that deliver Customer experience personnel
Legal • are led by
your differentiating Innovation top execs.
capabilities by bringing
together the many Marketing …
different skills and HR Functional teams
… focus on mono-
experiences they Finance
functional work
need from across Marketing and drive
…. …
the organization. functional excellence.
Changing lines and boxes alone won’t be enough to cement this ▪ Rewiring budget ownership and channeling investments to the
capabilities-driven way of working. You will need to address your capabilities that drive your advantage
organization’s DNA by: ▪ Redesigning how you define, measure, and reward performance
▪ Putting in place career models that enable fluid organization
▪ Facilitating the change by shaping new behaviors
Working in a capabilities-based way is not how most leaders 3 actions that help you invert the focus
have grown up. Many companies typically experience a lot of
competition in their top ranks: competition for who’s managing of the leadership team:
the strongest P&L or whose function contributes most to those
P&Ls, and sometimes competition for the top job. This
individualist thinking, while rewarded in many modern Team Establish the top team based on the
corporations because it drives individual accountability, won’t right skills mix: What roles, skills, and
help you transform your company. backgrounds are needed to deliver the
capabilities you have chosen to focus on
and deliver on your reimagined place in the
You need to invert the focus of your world?
leadership team, away from working
in separate silos and toward shaping Agenda Shift your leadership team’s focus
toward driving the transformation, not
the future as an integrated team. just responding to today’s demands:
What structures and mechanisms will
Just as your company needs a strategic effort to build the right allow you to ensure the urgent does not
differentiating capabilities, your leadership team needs new overwhelm the important?
skills and mechanisms to shift to this new form of value creation.
Behaviors Take ownership for how your
leadership team collaborates and
behaves: How do you best instill the level
of shared accountability and collaboration
your place in the world demands?
set up and the heads of the five new business units were added
to the team, while the number of leaders with functional Other
8 new leaders among
top team of 13
responsibilities was drastically cut. Overall, eight of the 13 functions
members of the Executive Committee were new to that team,
with two being outside hires. The mix of backgrounds better
balanced science and commercialization expertise. And the
injection of a few disruptors made sure the team was going to
shake things up. To make sure that leaders “put team Lilly before
their own unit,” the company kept executive incentives linked to
total performance.
As the initial transformation plan promised, Lilly continued to
invest in R&D. By 2016, Lilly was firmly back on a path of
profitable growth.
Today’s environment
requires a broader approach
to leadership. Leaders need
to disrupt themselves.
Navigating the shifting landscape of the world beyond digital The best leaders embody six leadership
requires a new form of leadership.
paradoxes:
The leaders we interviewed for our Strategic executor
How do you execute effectively while also being
research consistently emphasized that highly strategic?
they undertook a journey of personal Tech-savvy humanist
transformation that was every bit as How do you drive technology enhancement that
exciting and arduous as the one their generates future success while deeply
understanding human needs?
companies took.
High-integrity politician
Despite the specificity of each company’s—and each How do you navigate the politics of making things
leader’s—development journey, we have observed a common happen and still remain true to who you are?
set of characteristics among the successful leadership teams,
characteristics that on the surface seem quite odd: six Humble hero
leadership paradoxes. How do you act confidently in an uncertain world
and recognize humbly when you’re wrong?
All leaders will bring their own strengths to the job—but being
strong in one or two of these areas is probably not going to be Traditioned innovator
enough. So while you will build on your strengths, being deeply How to you drive innovation while staying true to
aware of this set of characteristics will help you be deliberate your purpose?
about your development, seek the right experiences, and
surround yourself with the right people who will round out your Globally minded localist
leadership profile. How do you navigate a world that is increasingly
both global and local?
Source: Based on Blair H. Sheppard, Ten Years to Midnight: Four Urgent Global Crises and Their
Strategic Solutions (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2020)
55 Strategy& | PwC Strategy& | PwC 56
Disrupt your own leadership approach
51% 49%
39%
Study those who aren’t like you
Strategic
Strategic executor Tech-savvy
Tech-savvy humanist High-integrity
High-integrity politician Look out for people who are great in areas you’re
executor humanist politician
not, observe what they’re doing, and develop
your own approach to learning, emulating and
83% adapting changes that are right for you.
72% 71%
“This book will move your thinking into the mid-twenty-first century. The internet “Rather than writing one more book about how technology will change our
is over fifty years old—’digital’ is yesterday. Here are seven insights about what lives, Leinwand and Mani have captured a future view of the world in which
comes next. But consider each one with care. Don’t rush. A return to deeper, business leaders must cope. The fundamentals of every industry—demand,
more complex thinking, followed by decisive, bold action is the only way to win supply, and context for success—have changed forever, and Beyond Digital
in the postdigital world.” clearly describes the imperatives and actions that will make tomorrow's leaders
—Sally Blount, CEO, Catholic Charities of Chicago; Michael L. Nemmers successful.”
Professor of Strategy and former Dean, Kellogg School of Management at —Ray Lane, Managing Partner, Greatpoint Ventures; former President, Oracle;
Northwestern University former Executive Chairman, Hewlett-Packard Company; member of the board
of directors, Beyond Meat
“Beyond Digital takes a strategic approach to increasing the relevance of your
company in a world where technology and data open up new possibilities. “Beyond Digital provides a detailed, well-researched road map for companies
Leinwand and Mani focus on how leaders define the ‘what’—their purpose and looking to transform themselves in an era when digitization is no longer a
business model—and how they set their companies and themselves up for differentiator. The authors cite examples from successful international
success. This reimagination is critical for leaders of companies of all sizes, organizations to challenge leaders to push past the defeatist sentiment ‘that’s
including startups.” how we’ve always done it’ to achieve true transformation.”
—Joy Chen, cofounder and CEO, Pure Culture Beauty —Tom Mihaljevic, MD, CEO and President, Cleveland Clinic
“Businesses in today’s world cannot afford to stand still. But change is a “Recent technological innovations are accelerating structural change across
continuous journey. Beyond Digital’s approach underlines the fact that it’s industries while also facilitating the resolution of social issues. To make the
only when organizations and leaders are prepared to truly challenge and best use of these innovations, today’s companies must reimagine who they
change the way they think, act, and engage that lasting and meaningful are, open new pathways to value creation, and transform their business. Based
transformation happens.” on an in-depth study of a dozen success stories, Beyond Digital reveals how
—Jean-Philippe Courtois, Executive Vice President and President, National any organization can translate this challenge into success. I strongly
Transformation Partnerships, Microsoft recommend it to all leaders who aspire to transformational change.”
—Naoki Tani, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and
“In Beyond Digital, Leinwand and Mani bypass the buzzwords and clichés and Executive General Manager of R&D Innovation Division, NTT DOCOMO
provide a rigorous foundation for digital business transformation. They show
how successful strategies are grounded in answering core questions such as “Beyond Digital challenges leaders to get past the obsessively competitive race
‘What is our purpose?,’ ‘What unique value do we add for our customers?,’ and toward digitization. Instead, this book helps them transform their companies by
‘What distinct capabilities do we need to deliver on our value proposition?’ A using technology to solve the massive challenges and opportunities facing
timely, insightful, and eminently useful guide for anyone leading business society today.”
transformation in today’s digital environment.” —Scott Watterson, Chairman of the Board and CEO, iFIT Health & Fitness
—Daniel Diermeier, Chancellor, Vanderbilt University
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