DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ELEVATES THE SPEED OF BUSINESS TO NEW HEIGHTS

Digital Transformation is the result of Globalization and Technology, linked with significant other megatrends in our world • Our world has changed. Our world changes. And our world will continue to change. The only difference is that the speed of change will accelerate, driven by an explosion of technical possibilities. • From a supply chain perspective, we see currently 10 Megatrends having the biggest impact on the supply chains of companies. There are, of course, many other trends and even megatrends, just waiting to become as relevant as the ones mentioned on the exhibit. So it is a selective list at a point in time, not a fixed foundation to build strategies and operations upon. • One of the key drivers which changes the operating models of entire industries is the internet as an open, global access of customers to their points of demand fulfilment. This is probably the biggest change ever in history, when we think of making products, and finding customers who buy them. It totally decouples time, distances, choices, prices, and how to attract the enormous variety of potential customers. • As a result, business speed has immensly accelerated, performance expectations have been raised to extremes as a standard, and customer loyalty is in most cases at its lowest. Every customer relationship is so fragile that it needs to be captured with every purchase process again by having the most attractive service offering. And this service offering consists of many topics; choices, presentations, additional information, individual approach, tailored advise on complementing accessories and products, delivery speed choices, payment convenience, and many more. • Even the internet driven business societies change constantly, as new entrants (or existing players) come up with new solutions which change the world again. WhatsApp has changed the way of communication, and WeChat builds on this by changing the way of making all kinds of business transactions for consumers. • As a result, companies are faced with more volatility in the demand of customers and consumers, and on the other side have to handle an ever increasing portfolio of producs and services. • And in the production environment, INDUSTRY 4.0 as well as INTERNET OF THINGS create new possibilities, and also challenges. And it gets increasingly difficult to differentiate between short-lived “fashion trends and hypes”, and value adding applications of new technologies.

Mastering the digital transformation can not be avoided, it is a necessity for survival in our “Brave New Business World”. • As the business environment seems to accelerate every day, new technological enablers emerge in almost mushrooming fashion, and new competitive challenges appear faster than to establish the own “digital” service offering, the instruments and methods of Value Chain Excellence get more and more important to address these. • Although many changes happen on the consumer interface side to attract their attention, still the reality of fulfilling the desire is the key for making revenue, and to create the opportunity for follow-up business. • Besides helping our clients to identify opportunities in this fast-moving, exciting, and sometimes frightening world, we also help to shape the organization to be suitable in the right way to these challenges. • This covers the operational levels, for which you find a lot of ideas in the other sections (e.g. integrated business management, responsiveness, agility, segmentation). • And it covers the leadership level of the company, where we have identified how successful companies manage from the top - by combining creativity, energy, expertise and the desire to win. • As a third area to support our clients, we have identified how to cope with the blend of technological possibilities, organizational dynamics, and market volatilities. We call this the “4-S-Method”, which combines the new organizational design principles of Sensing, Structures, Skills, and Systems. These four topics sound familiar, but are newly defined in the context of better abilities to address markets, design internal flexibility, develop specific skills and strenths in the workforce, and leverage on IT-system capabilities, modular designs, and performance.