Digital Business: Three Core Concepts Exploded

 by Annet Aris, INSEAD Senior Affiliate Professor of Strategy

The digital world has pushed old curves off the whiteboard as new trajectories arise.

Even tedious jobs like cleaning out archives can sometimes lead to great insights. Sifting through my old files recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find a treasure trove of old memories and forgotten facts. Amongst these papers were notebooks from my engineering studies; I realised that I no longer remembered the math formulas I had so diligently noted. The everyday pressures of business have blurred these lines.

There are, however, some basic concepts that have stood the test of time. Most are simple intuitive relationships such as extrapolated trend lines, the normal distribution curve and scale effects that taper as volume increases.

For most of us, these stick in our heads and have been useful in an analogue world where goods were scarce and the cost of transactions significant. As business becomes digital, however, other rules and relationships apply. If the old curves and concepts are rooted too deeply, we run the risk of taking the wrong decisions based on our default ideas.

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The Technologies Senior Leaders Plan to Deploy in the Coming Years

by Andrew Shipilov

Cloud computing is expected to take a back seat to AI, big data analytics and blockchain.

Despite all the hype, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, blockchain and 3D printing have had a small impact on businesses in the last few years. Big data analytics has had the biggest impact, according to a survey I conducted with my colleague Nathan Furr of 317 INSEAD MBA alumni and participants in our Executive Education programmes. Our respondents were mostly senior executives and around 50 percent of them worked in large companies.

Big data analytics, cloud and machine learning have all had a significant impact on business in the past two years. Big data analytics seems to have changed almost all business areas (creation of new revenues, core business protection, improvements in operational efficiency, new customer acquisition, increased retention and loyalty of existing customers). Cloud computing primarily helped improve operational efficiency.

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Sales

 

 

 

Summary

Senior level sales executive focused on new logo acquisition. Responsible for identifying and driving sales opportunities to closure; increasingly selling a mix of defined solutions/extensions and new offerings or products into white space; wide range of service group offerings and deal structures. Must develop strong relationships with key senior (Divisional head/C-Suite) client buyers and drive client decision-making spanning multiple layers of the organization. Responsible for managing the sales organization, achieving targeted margin contributions, developing sales & marketing strategies, and serving as a member of the executive management team.

Responsibilities:

  • Create, identify and drive business development opportunities with new logo clients and potentially expand existing client relationships
  • Work with and sell to C-level and senior level management
  • Develop trusted relationships, share insights that have meaningful impact to the customer’s business while positioning the company’s solutions to address business challenges.
  • Articulate and present the cost justification/risk mitigation related to the company’s solutions
  • Create differentiation, educate the customer on potential solutions and influence the decision making process.
  • Build excellent client relationships offering value-added, insightful and strategic input to their business strategies

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The Board Directors You Need for a Digital Transformation

 

By Tuck Rickards and Rhys Grossman

iStock_000027814907Small - CopyWhen the term digital transformation was first bandied about by consultants and business publications, its implications were more about keeping up and catching up than true transformation. Additionally, at first it was only applied to large, traditional organizations struggling, or experimenting, in an increasingly digital economy. But true digital transformation requires so much more. As evidenced by the recent Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods, we’re living in a new world.

Early transformation efforts were focused on initiatives: e-commerce, sensors/internet of things, applications, client and customer experience, and so on. Increasingly, our clients are coming to us as they realize that in order for these disparate initiatives to thrive, they need to undergo an end-to-end transformation, the success of which demands dramatic operational, structural, and cultural shifts. Continue reading

SAP S4 HANA Finance Technology Consulting Senior Manager

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 As an SAP Finance & Enterprise Performance Technology Consulting Senior Manager, you will have the opportunity to:

  • Advise upon, lead and work on high impact activities within the systems development life cycle
  • Provide advisory work for the IT function itself
  • Design, implement and deploy SAP solutions to achieve defined business goals
  • Maintain skills in SAP applications process design and configuration; SAP application design, development, integration, testing and deployment; and SAP application technical architecture

Responsibilities:

  • Provides solutions to complex business problems for area(s) of responsibility where analysis of situations requires an in-depth knowledge of organizational objectives
  • Involved in setting strategic direction to establish near term goals for area of responsibility
  • Interacts with senior management levels at a client and/or within our client which involves negotiating or influencing on significant matters
  • Has latitude in decision-making and determining objectives and approaches to critical assignments.
  • Decisions have a lasting impact on area of responsibility with the potential to impact outside area of responsibility
  • Manages large teams and/or work efforts at a client

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