MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Leadership's Digital Transformation

Digital transformation — as business ideology and enterprise imperative — has won: Serious business leaders worldwide accept that their markets, customers, and workers have gone digital. In our recent global management survey, 93% of workers across industries and geographies affirm that being digitally savvy is essential to performing well in their role. The idea that effective digital transformation delivers agility, adaptability, and customer centricity is now both managerial mantra and leadership inspiration.

In real life, however, effective digital transformations also deliver unforeseen risks and unanticipated costs. Leaders’ emphasis on greater efficiency and productivity has provoked a backlash, particularly from a digitally savvy workforce. Digital talent now expects more from leadership than greater flexibility, better compensation, and/or productivity-supporting work environments. Our research suggests that digitally savvy workforces expect digital transformation to better reflect and respect their concerns and values, not just ensure superior business capabilities and opportunities.

About the Author

Michael Schrage is a research fellow at the MIT Sloan School of Management’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, where he does research and advisory work on how digital media transforms agency, human capital, and innovation.

Benjamin Pring cofounded and leads Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work. He is a coauthor of a number of bestselling and award-winning books on how new technologies are changing the future of work.

David Kiron is the editorial director of MIT Sloan Management Review and leads the publication’s Big Ideas program, a content platform examining macrotrends that are transforming the practice of management.

Desmond Dickerson is a manager in Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work. Leveraging his experience in digital transformation, he consults with clients on optimizing digital strategies that prioritize user experience and engagement.

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