麻省理工深度好文：数字化转型新因素

2021年09月06日

本文共29262字，预计阅读时间84分钟

猿小六注：本文是对作者2014年文章《数字化转型的九个要素》的反思。

The authors revisit their landmark research and address how the competitive advantages offered by digital technology have evolved.

两位作者回顾了他们的里程碑式研究，并阐述了数字化技术提供的竞争优势是如何演变的。Didier Bonnet and George Westerman November 19, 2020

数字化转型新要素

Since 2014, when our article “The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation” appeared in these pages, executive awareness of the powerful and ever-evolving ways in which digital technology can create competitive advantage has become pervasive.But acting on that awareness remains a challenging prospect.

自2014年我们的文章《数字化转型的九个要素》发表以来，高管们普遍意识到数字化技术创造竞争优势的强大而不断发展的方式。但是，根据这种意识采取行动仍然是一个具有挑战性的前景。

It requires that companies become what we calldigital masters. Digital masters cultivate two capabilities: digital capability, which enables them to use innovative technologies to improve elements of the business, and leadership capability, which enables them to envision and drive organizational change in systematic and profitable ways. Together, these two capabilities allow a company to transform digital technology into business advantage.

它要求企业成为我们所说的“数字化大师”。“数字化大师”需要两种能力：一种是数字化能力，这使他们能够使用创新技术来改善业务的要素；另一种是领导能力，这使他们能够以系统的和有利可图的方式来预见和推动组织的变革。这两种能力结合在一起，一家公司才能够将数字化技术转化为业务优势。

Digital mastery is more important than ever because the risks of falling behind are increasing. In 10 years of research, we have seen digital transformation grow increasingly complex, with a new wave of technological and competitive possibilities arriving before many companies mastered the first. When we began our research, most large traditional enterprises were using digital technologies to incrementally improve parts of their businesses. Since then, this first phase of activity has given way to a new one. Advances in a host of technologies, such as the internet of things, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and 5G, have opened new avenues for value creation. More important, leaders now recognize the need for — and the possibility of — truly transforming the fundamentals of how they do business. They understand that they have to move from disconnected technology experiments to a more systematic approach to strategy and execution.

掌握数字化技术比以往任何时候都更加重要，因为落后的风险正在增加。在10年的研究中，我们看到数字化转型变得越来越复杂，在许多公司掌握第一波技术和竞争可能性之前，一波新的技术和竞争可能性就已经到来。当我们开始研究时，大多数大型传统企业都在使用数字技术来逐步改善其部分业务。从那时起，第一阶段的活动已经让位于一个新的阶段。物联网、人工智能、虚拟现实、增强现实、5G等一系列技术的进步，为价值创造开辟了新的途径。更重要的是，领导者们现在认识到，真正改变经营方式的基础是有必要的，也是有可能的。他们明白，必须从孤立的技术实验转向更系统的策略和执行方法。

The Analysis  分析

We updated our original 2014 framework to reflect changes in the state of digital transformation over the past six years.

我们更新了2014年的原始框架，以反映过去6年数字化转型状态的变化。

Through interviews, teaching, and surveys with hundreds of executives, we have researched how corporations use new technologies, such as IoT and AI, to transform their operations.

通过对数百名高管的采访、培训和调查，我们研究了企业如何利用物联网和人工智能等新技术来变革其运营。

Our earlier research on digital transformation identified two dimensions through which leading companies outperform their peers: digital capability and leadership capability.

我们早期对数字化转型的研究确定了领先企业超越同行的两个维度：数字化能力和领导能力。

We found that the elements of leadership capability have endured, but new elements of digital capability have come to the fore.

我们发现，领导能力的因素已经历过，但数字化能力的新因素已经崭露头角。

Some companies have successfully graduated from the first phase of digital transformation and are diving into the second. But many are still floundering: In 2018, when we surveyed 1,300 executives in more than 750 global organizations, only 38% of them told us that their companies had the digital capability needed to become digital masters, and only 35% said they had the leadership capability to do so. This has become more worrisome than ever: As COVID-19 accelerates the shift to digital activity, digital masters are widening the gap between their capabilities and those of their competitors.

一些企业已经成功地从数字化转型的第一阶段毕业，并进入了第二阶段。但许多企业仍在挣扎：2018年，我们调查了750多家全球组织的1300名高管，其中只有38%的人告诉我们，他们的公司拥有成为“数字化大师”所需的数字化能力，只有35%的人表示他们有领导能力做到这一点。这比以往任何时候都更加令人担忧：随着新冠病毒加速了向数字化活动的转变，“数字化大师”正在拉大他们与竞争对手之间的能力差距。

These conditions prompted us to reexamine the elements of digital transformation that we proposed in 2014. While strong leadership capability is even more essential than ever, its core elements — vision, engagement, and governance — are not fundamentally changed, though they are informed by recent innovations. The elements of digital capability, on the other hand, have been more profoundly altered by the rapid technological advances of recent years.

这些情况促使我们重新审视我们在2014年提出的数字转型要素。虽然强大的领导能力比以往任何时候都更加重要，但其核心要素——愿景、参与和治理——并没有从根本上改变，尽管它们受到了最近的创新的启发。另一方面，随着近年来技术的快速进步，数字化能力的要素发生了更为深刻的变化。

Accordingly, we’ve revisited the elements of digital capability to reflect the opportunities and impact of new digital technologies. Some of the original elements remain relatively unchanged, some have been reconfigured, and some new elements have emerged. (See “The New Elements of Digital Capability.”) The elements aimed at improving customer experience and internal operations remain important. Employee experience has expanded from a single element to its own set of elements, since employees make the business run and have firsthand insights on where processes need to improve. The elements of business model innovation have expanded, too, with the rise of multisided platform businesses and the increasing dominance of global platform players, such as Alibaba, Amazon, and Google. Last, we’ve given more prominence to the digital platform that underpins all the other elements in a company.

因此，我们重新审视了数字化能力的要素，以反映新数字化技术的机遇和影响。一些原始要素相对保持不变，一些被重新配置，一些新的要素出现。(参见“数字化能力的新要素”)旨在改善客户体验和内部运营的要素仍然很重要。员工经验已经从单一元素扩展到它自己的元素集，因为员工使业务运行，并对流程需要改进的地方有第一手的见解。随着多边平台业务的兴起，以及阿里巴巴、亚马逊和谷歌等全球平台公司日益占据主导地位，商业模式创新的元素也在扩大。最后，我们更加重视支撑公司所有其他要素的数字平台。

The New Elements of Digital Capability  数字化能力的新要素

The updated framework places more emphasis on employee experience and business model innovation, as well as on the digital platform, which powers the other elements and, when structured and managed well, enables further innovation.

更新后的框架更加强调员工体验和商业模式创新，以及数字化平台，它为其他要素提供动力，如果结构和管理得当，就能进一步创新。

数字化转型的新要素

Transforming the Customer Experience  客户体验转型

Seeing the business from the outside in — from the customers’ perspective — is as relevant and necessary today as it was in the first phase of digital transformation. But while the focus on customers has not radically changed, the elements needed to create compelling experiences have changed. Today, the three elements are experience design, customer intelligence, and emotional engagement.

从客户的角度，从外部向内部来看待业务，在今天和在数字化转型的第一阶段一样重要和必要。但是，虽然对消费者的关注没有根本改变，但创造引人注目的体验所需的要素已经改变。如今，这三个要素是体验设计、客户情报和情感参与。

Experience design: Customer experience has become the ultimate battleground for many companies and brands. While compelling experiences are easy to recognize, they are hard to design and deliver. That’s because this work requires equal measures of empathic creativity and technological prowess. The former requires tools such as journey mapping, “a day in the life” ethnographic studies, and customer personas, as well as practices such as design thinking. These tools and practices provide an intimate understanding of human behaviors and the ability to surface customer insights through careful observation, skilled listening, and constant experimentation. The latter is powered by the ability to digitally reengineer customer experiences, by integrating front-office technologies and processes with back-office operational infrastructure to instantaneously deliver an uninterrupted service experience, for instance.

体验设计：客户体验已经成为许多公司和品牌的终极战场。虽然引人注目的体验很容易识别，但它们很难设计和交付。这是因为这项工作需要同理心创造力和技术能力的同等衡量。前者需要工具，如旅程地图，“生活中的一天”人类学研究，客户角色，以及实践，如设计思维。这些工具和实践提供了对人类行为的亲密理解，以及通过仔细观察、熟练倾听和不断试验来揭示客户洞察力的能力。后者是由数字化重新设计客户体验的能力驱动的，例如，通过将前台技术和流程与后台运营基础设施集成，瞬间交付不间断的服务体验。

Sephora transformed long-standing customer pain points around sampling and purchasing cosmetics into a compelling, digitally powered customer experience. Using AI to match a customer’s skin tones to the most appropriate products and virtual reality to sample the products, the company created a convenient, at-home shopping experience that rivals the personalization of an in-store experience. Sephora’s approach, embedded in an app, attracted 8.5 million user visits between 2016 and 2018, and it has helped the company as the pandemic disrupted the in-store experience.

丝芙兰（Sephora）将长期困扰顾客的试装和购买化妆品的问题转化为引人注目的数字化客户体验。该公司利用人工智能将顾客的肤色与最合适的产品匹配，并利用虚拟现实对产品进行取样，创造了一种方便的在家购物体验，可与店内个性化体验相媲美。丝芙兰将这种方法嵌入到一个APP中，在2016年至2018年期间吸引了850万用户访问，在疫情扰乱店内体验的情况下，这种方法帮助了该公司。

Customer intelligence:Integrating customer data across silos and understanding customer behavior — efforts undertaken in the first phase of digital transformation — have become table stakes in customer experience. Now, as machine learning has begun to deliver on its initial promise, real-time customer intelligence is enabling highly personalized interactions and making it possible to deliver accurately focused, proactive customer services, such as “next best offers.”

客户智能：集成跨孤岛的客户数据和理解客户行为——数字化转型第一阶段的努力——已经成为客户体验的重要组成部分。现在，随着机器学习开始实现其最初的承诺，实时客户智能正在实现高度个性化的交互，并使其有可能提供准确专注的、前瞻性的客户服务，如“次优优惠”。

Stitch Fix is an online styling service that curates personalized collections of clothes, shoes, and accessories for each of its subscribers. The curation is based initially on an extensive customer style survey and then improved and personalized through data such as returns, preferences, and a Style Shuffle feature that invites subscribers to rate clothing images each day. Some 120 data scientists support the stylists at Stitch Fix, which has grown to $1.6 billion in annual sales and $37 million net income since its founding in 2011.

Stitch Fix 是一个在线造型服务，为每个订户设计个性化的服装、鞋子和配饰。这种管理最初是基于广泛的客户风格调查，然后通过退货、偏好和风格变换功能(邀请订阅者每天对服装图片进行评分)等数据进行改进和个性化。大约有120名数据科学家支持Stitch Fix的造型师。该公司自2011年成立以来，年销售额已增长至16亿美元，净利润为3700万美元。

Emotional engagement:Emotional connections with customers are as essential as technology in creating compelling customer experiences. In one study, emotionally engaged customers were shown to be 52% more valuable than highly satisfied customers.This is why companies are using digital technology to solicit and enable customer participation across their value chains: in R&D and product development (for example, Starbucks’ MyStarbucksidea.com), content creation (LinkedIn profiles), logistics (UPS MyChoice), and services (iStockphoto inspectors).

情感投入：在创造令人信服的客户体验时，与客户的情感联系与技术一样重要。在一项研究中，情感投入的顾客比高度满意的顾客价值高52%。这就是为什么企业正在使用数字化技术来招揽并使客户参与到他们的价值链中：在研发和产品开发(例如，星巴克的MyStarbucksidea.com)、内容创造(LinkedIn个人资料)、物流(UPS的MyChoice)和服务(iStockphoto检查人员)。

Giffgaff, a U.K. virtual mobile operator owned by Telefonica, has a business model that is powered by its member (customer) community. With a staff of fewer than 250 people, the company has no call center and no customer service department. Essentially, customer service has been outsourced to its more than 3 million members — and it works.

Giffgaff 是西班牙电信旗下的一家英国虚拟移动运营商，它的商业模式是由成员（客户）社区推动的。公司只有不到250名员工，没有呼叫中心，也没有客服部门。从本质上讲，客户服务已经外包给了它的300多万会员——而且它是有效的。

Transforming Operations  运营转型

As ever, well-managed operations are essential to converting revenue into profit, but now we’re seeing a shift in the focus of digital transformation in this arena. Advances in sensors, cloud, machine learning, and IoT are allowing companies in every industry to transform their operational capabilities. In addition, leaders are seeing how operational excellence can move beyond back-office efficiency to enable engaging customer experience and business models that competitors cannot copy. This operational transformation is occurring in three elements of digital capability: core process automation, connected and dynamic operations, and data-driven decision-making.

一如既往，管理良好的运营是将收入转化为利润的关键，但现在我们看到了数字化转型正聚焦于这个领域。传感器、云计算、机器学习和物联网技术的进步，让各行各业的公司都能改变自己的运营能力。此外，领导者们正看到卓越的运营如何超越后端的办公效率，实现吸引人的客户体验和竞争对手无法复制的商业模式。这种运营转型发生在数字化能力的三个要素中：核心过程自动化、连接和动态运营，以及数据驱动决策。

Core process automation:Even as some companies are still implementing traditional automation approaches such as enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution, and product life cycle management systems, other companies are moving beyond them to digitally reinvent operations. Amazon’s distribution centers deliver inventory to workers rather than sending workers to collect inventory. Rio Tinto, an Australian mining company, uses autonomous trucks, trains, and drilling machinery so that it can shift workers to less dangerous tasks, leading to higher productivity and better safety.

核心过程自动化：尽管一些公司仍在实施传统的自动化方法，如ERP、MES和PLM，但其他公司正在超越这些方法，转向数字化改造运营。亚马逊的配送中心将库存交付给工人，而不是让工人去收集库存。澳大利亚矿业公司Rio Tinto使用具有自动驾驶功能的卡车、火车和钻井机械，以便将工人转移到危险较小的工作岗位，从而提高生产率和安全性。

In rethinking core process automation, advanced technologies are useful but not prerequisites. Asian Paints transformed itself from a maker of coatings in 13 regions in India to a provider of coatings, painting services, design services, and home renovations in 17 countries by first establishing a common core of digitized processes under an ERP system. This provided a foundation to build upon and a clean source of data to generate insights. Later, the company incorporated machine learning, robotics, augmented reality, and other technologies to digitally enable its expansion.

在重新思考核心过程自动化时，先进的技术是有用的，但不是先决条件。亚洲涂料首先在ERP系统下建立了共用的、核心的数字化流程，从印度13个地区的涂料制造商转型为在17个国家提供涂料、油漆服务、设计服务和家居装修服务的供应商。这为他们提供了以一个清晰的数据来源来获得洞察能力的基础。后来，该公司结合了机器学习、机器人、增强现实和其他技术，以数字化方式实现了扩张。

Connected and dynamic operations:Thanks to the growing availability of cheap sensors, cloud infrastructure, and machine learning, concepts such as Industry 4.0, digital threads, and digital twins have become a reality. Digital threads connecting machines, models, and processes provide a single source of truth to manage, optimize, and enhance processes from requirements definition through maintenance. Engineers at Raytheon Technologies, for example, model machine tools at the cutting face — enabling them to design components right the first time, with desired tolerances, surface features, and defect rates. Construction companies link drone-based observations to blueprints to identify and correct problems before they require expensive rework.

连接和动态运营：由于廉价的传感器、云基础设施和机器学习的日益普及，工业4.0、数字线程(Digital Threads)和数字孪生等概念已经成为现实。数字线程连接机器、模型和流程，为从需求定义到维护过程的管理、优化和增强流程提供了一个单一的真实来源。例如，雷神技术公司(Raytheon Technologies)的工程师在切割面建模机床，这使他们能够在第一次就正确地设计出组件，具有所需的公差、表面特征和缺陷率。建筑公司将无人机观测与蓝图联系起来，在问题需要昂贵的返工之前识别并纠正问题。

The ramifications reach far beyond the manufacturing process. Schindler, a maker of elevators, escalators, and other transport systems, used to manage each of its products separately, making it difficult to understand and manage overall traffic flows in real time. But, by connecting its products and adding analytics, the company is able to optimize transportation across an entire office building or campus — anticipating when people will be moving from one location to another, changing operating speeds and routes accordingly, and responding to mechanical issues before they become outages.

其影响远远超出了生产过程。迅达(Schindler)是一家电梯、自动扶梯和其他交通系统的制造商，过去常常分别管理每一种产品，这使得实时了解和管理整体交通流量变得困难。但是，通过连接其产品并添加分析，该公司能够优化整个办公楼或校园的交通——预测人们何时将从一个地点移动到另一个地点，相应地改变运行速度和路线，并在因为机械问题造成中断之前做出反应。

Data-driven decision-making:In recent years, the basis for operational decisions has increasingly shifted from backward-looking reports to real-time data. Now, connected devices, new machine learning algorithms, smarter experimentation, and plentiful data enable more-informed decisions. This capacity is spreading to strategic and marketing decisions, too. Digital masters are taking advantage of this by integrating operational and strategic decision-making in new and powerful ways.

数据驱动决策：近年来，业务决策的基础越来越多地从过去的报告转向实时数据。现在，联网设备、新的机器学习算法、更智能的实验和丰富的数据使更明智的决策成为可能。这种能力也正在扩展到战略和营销决策。数字化大师们正在利用这一点，以新的、强有力的方式整合运营和战略决策。

Flex, a global provider of manufacturing and supply chain services, created Flex Pulse to deliver analytics-based management capabilities.Pulse tracks and optimizes inventory usage and supply chain status across more than 1,000 of Flex’s enterprise customers, with each customer able to see its own supply chain information via apps. When a disruption occurs or a risk emerges in one part of the world — a volcano, political turmoil, or a disease outbreak — Flex can adjust its supply chain processes in response. Pulse also provides Flex with deep data-based insight into broader geographic, industry, and supply chain trends so that it can better choose, manage, and negotiate with its sourcing partners.

Flex是一家全球制造和供应链服务提供商，创建了Flex Pulse，以提供基于分析的管理能力。Pulse跟踪并优化了超过1000家Flex企业客户的库存使用情况和供应链状况，每个客户都可以通过应用程序查看自己的供应链信息。当世界某个地区出现中断或风险——火山爆发、政治动荡或疾病爆发——Flex可以调整其供应链流程来应对。Pulse还为Flex提供了基于数据的深入洞察，以了解更广泛的地理、行业和供应链趋势，从而使Flex能够更好地选择、管理和与采购合作伙伴进行谈判。

Transforming Employee Experience  员工体验转型

If we’ve learned anything during the past decade of digital transformation, it’s that employees can be either the greatest inhibitors or the greatest enablers of transformation success.

如果说我们从过去十年的数字化转型中学到了什么，那就是员工可能是成功转型的最大阻碍因素，也可能是最大的促成因素。

Accordingly, companies have begun to focus on the employee experience as intently as they do on the customer experience. Three elements of employee experience transformation have emerged in recent years: augmentation, future-readying, and flexforcing.

因此，公司开始像专注于客户体验一样专注于员工体验。近年来，员工体验转变的三个要素出现了：能力增强、准备未来和弹性能力。

Augmentation:Warnings that robots will replace humans have given way to a more nuanced and productive discussion. Now, companies are considering how robotics and other digital technologies can augment employee productivity and performance — enabling people to work faster, smarter, and more safely.

能力增强：有关机器人将取代人类的警告，已经让位于另一场更为微妙和富有成效的讨论。现在，企业正在考虑如何使用机器人和其他数字化技术来提高员工的生产力和绩效——使人们工作得更快、更聪明、更安全。

Workers in Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News, Virginia, shipyard use augmented reality to help build giant complex vessels such as aircraft carriers and submarines. They can “see” where to route wires or pipes or what is behind a wall before they start drilling into it. This system and others improve team performance and worker satisfaction by reducing trips to get blueprints and paperwork, managing handoffs across shifts, and showing workers how their work fits within a project as a whole.

亨廷顿英格尔斯工业公司 (Huntington Ingalls Industries) 位于弗吉尼亚州纽波特纽斯 (Newport News) 的造船厂的工人们利用增强现实技术帮助建造大型复杂船只，如航空母舰和潜艇。在开始钻孔之前，他们可以“看到”在哪里布置电线或管道，或者墙后面有什么。该系统和其他系统通过减少获取蓝图、文档的行程，管理轮班之间的交接，以及向员工展示他们的工作如何在整个项目中起作用，从而提高团队绩效和员工满意度。

Future-readying:The dynamism of today’s competitive environment highlights the urgency of providing employees with the skills they need to keep up with the pace of change. In the past few years, this has given rise to new models of managing learning and development in organizations, led by a new kind of chief learning officer, whom we call thetransformer CLO. Transformer CLOs reshape corporate capabilities and culture by revampinglearning goalsto help employees develop the mindsets and capabilities needed to perform well now and adapt smoothly in the future;learning methods to create learning experiences that are more atomized, digitized, and personalized; andlearning departments to make them leaner, more agile, and more strategic. By transforming the learning and development function, these leaders ensure that employees have the capabilities they need to embrace digital technology and drive business transformation.

准备未来：当今充满活力的竞争环境突出了向员工提供他们需要的技能以跟上变化步伐的紧迫性。在过去的几年里，这引发了组织中管理学习和发展的新模式，由一种新型的首席学习官领导，我们称之为转型首席学习官。转型首席学习官们通过改变学习目标来重塑企业能力和文化，帮助员工培养良好的心态和能力，以实现现在的良好表现和未来的顺利适应；学习型的方法，以创造更原子化、数字化和个性化的学习体验；学习型的部门，使他们更精简，更敏捷，更有策略。通过学习和开发职能的转型，领导者们确保员工拥有他们需要的能力来拥抱数字化技术，推动业务转型。

Julie Dervin, global head of corporate learning and development at Cargill, told us, “Unintentionally, we were creating a learning culture where only a select few got access to high-quality training. … We’ve been fundamentally changing how we design, deliver, and shape those learning experiences to be able to reach exponentially more learners with high-impact learning.”The food and agriculture company is shifting its mix to incorporate more digital than in-person experiences — even for senior executives — and learners appreciate the change. It is also introducing new learning opportunities such as “application challenges” where workers receive a short lesson, apply it immediately, and then receive immediate feedback from their peers.

嘉吉 (Cargill) 全球企业学习与发展主管朱莉·德文 (Julie Dervin) 告诉我们：“我们无意中创造了一种学习型文化，在这种文化中，只有少数人能够获得高质量的培训。我们一直在从根本上改变我们设计、提供和塑造这些学习体验的方式，以便能够以指数级的方式为更多的学习者提供高影响力的学习。”这家食品和农业公司正在改变其结构，将更多的数字化体验融入其中，而不是面对面的体验——甚至对高管也是如此——而学员们对这种变化表示赞赏。该公司还引入了新的学习机会，如“应用挑战”，即员工接受简短的课程，立即应用，然后立即从同事那里获得反馈。

Flexforcing:To respond to fast-paced digital opportunities and threats, companies also need to build agility into their talent sourcing systems. In the past decade, outsourcing provided a partial answer to the challenge but with mixed results. Ecosystems of partners also have been used to provide talent on demand, but managing such ecosystems requires heavy investments in resources and attention. Now, we see some companie seeking talent agility in new ways.

弹性能力：为了应对快节奏的数字化机遇和威胁，公司还需要在其人才招聘系统中建立灵活性。在过去十年中，外包为这一挑战提供了部分答案，但结果好坏参半。合作伙伴的生态系统也被用来按需提供人才，但管理这样的生态系统需要在资源和注意力方面进行大量投资。现在，我们看到一些公司以新的方式寻求人才的灵活性。

As automation and AI applications take over tasks once performed by humans, some companies are multiskilling employees to make the organization more agile. For instance, oil and gas companies have broadened the occupational scope of their geoscientists using intensive multiskilling training in topics like geology, geophysics, reservoir engineering, and geochemistry to develop a cadre of agile specialists.

随着自动化和人工智能应用接管了曾经由人类完成的任务，一些公司开始对员工进行多技能培训，以使组织更加灵活。例如，石油和天然气公司已经扩大了他们的地质科学家的职业范围，在地质学、地球物理学、油藏工程和地球化学等领域进行了密集的多技能培训，以培养一批敏捷的专家。

Other companies are using contingent workers, which may represent as much as 40% of the U.S. workforce, to supplement their talent on a variable cost basis. Some of them, including UPS and Target, are building their own pools of gig workers by encouraging ex-employees and retirees to boomerang back on a contingent basis to fill important skill gaps.

其他公司则在可变成本基础上使用临时员工来补充他们的人才，临时员工可能占美国劳动力的40%。包括 UPS 和塔吉特(Target) 在内的一些公司，正在通过鼓励前雇员和退休人员随时回来填补重要的技能缺口，建立自己的偶发人才储备库。

Transforming Business Models  商业模式转型

In 2014, despite much talk about business model transformation, we found that only 7% of companies were using digital initiatives to launch new businesses and only 15% were creating new business models with digital technology.Times have changed. Now, executives in every industry are paying closer attention to how digital prowess can yield business model innovation. Without falling victim to the “everything is being disrupted” mantra, it is clear that the extent of business model transformation is broadening. We see three elements supporting business model transformation: digital enhancements, information-based service extensions, and multisided platforms.

2014年，尽管很多人都在谈论商业模式转型，但我们发现，只有7%的公司使用数字化计划来启动新业务，只有15%的公司使用数字化技术创建新的商业模式。时间已经改变。如今，各行各业的高管都在密切关注数字化技术如何催生商业模式创新。在不成为“一切都在被颠覆”咒语的受害者的情况下，很明显，商业模式转型的范围正在扩大。我们看到支撑商业模式转型的三个要素：数字化增强、基于信息的服务扩展和多边平台。

Digital enhancements: Business model transformation doesn’t always require disrupting a company or industry. Increasingly, companies are finding ways to digitally enhance their existing business models without requiring major changes to the business. For instance, nearly 80% of traditional retailers in the U.K. are now meshing digital and physical channels through click-and-collect services.

数字化增强：商业模式转型并不总是需要颠覆一家公司或一个行业。越来越多的公司正在寻找方法，在不需要对业务进行重大改变的情况下，以数字化的方式增强现有的业务模式。例如，英国近80%的传统零售商现在都通过“点击-收集”服务将数字渠道和实体渠道结合起来。

Others are turning product sales into service offerings. For example, Hilti, a construction tools and products provider, created a tools-on-demand program for its construction clients. Rather than selling tools, it makes a variety of tools available through a subscription service that includes repairs and customized services.

其他公司则将产品销售转变为服务。例如，建筑工具和产品供应商Hilti为其建筑客户创建了一个工具需求的软件。它不是销售工具，而是通过借用服务提供各种工具，包括维修和定制服务。

Information-based service extensions: More and more companies are expanding their product-based business models with information-based services, combining sensors, communication networks, apps, and analytics to create value for customers and new sources of revenue for themselves. This requires advanced analytic capabilities, end-to-end service design, and tight integration with customers’ devices and business processes.

基于信息的服务扩展：越来越多的公司正在通过基于信息的服务扩展其基于产品的商业模式，结合传感器、通信网络、应用程序和分析，为客户创造价值，并为自己创造新的收入来源。这需要高级的分析功能、端到端服务设计以及与客户设备和业务流程的紧密集成。

Global tire maker Michelin connected its products using embedded sensors that collect and transmit valuable data on usage, distance, and maintenance needs. Its Fleet Solutions business now provides its customers with comprehensive and convenient tire management services that deliver better cost control, fewer breakdowns, and less administrative work. Essentially, the company has moved to an outcome-based business model, selling problem-free kilometers instead of tires.These as-a-service offerings are appearing in every industry and are particularly compelling for large, expensive items such as power turbines and aircraft engines.

全球轮胎制造商米其林使用嵌入式传感器将产品连接起来，这些传感器收集和传输有关使用、距离和维护需求的有价值的数据。其车队解决方案业务现在为客户提供全面和方便的轮胎管理服务，提供更好的成本控制，更少的故障和更少的行政工作。从本质上讲，该公司已经转向了一种基于结果的商业模式，销售没有问题的公里数，而不是轮胎。这些作为服务的产品出现在每个行业，特别是大型、昂贵的项目，如动力涡轮机和飞机引擎。

Multisided platforms: Multisided platforms have disrupted a range of industries including taxi services, hospitality, and retail, and they are spreading further afield. In 2018, for instance, German steel and metal distributor Klöckner launched XOM, a proprietary online platform to distribute its products. Moreover, the company invited its competitors to join the platform. This positioned Klöckner’s platform as an independent digital marketplace for anyone buying or selling steel, metal, and other industrial products. To ensure fair and transparent access to competitors, XOM is run independently of the core business.

多边平台：多边平台已经颠覆了一系列行业，包括出租车服务、酒店和零售，而且它们正在向更远的地方扩散。例如，2018年，德国钢铁和金属经销商Klöckner推出了XOM，这是一个分销其产品的专有在线平台。此外，该公司还邀请其竞争对手加入该平台。这将Klöckner平台定位为一个独立的数字化市场，任何人都可以买卖钢铁、金属和其他工业产品。为了确保公平和透明地进入竞争对手，XOM独立于核心业务运行。

Launching a successful multisided platform ecosystem requires specific economic conditions, heavy investment, and a strong dose of luck to reach profitable scale. So not every company should try to become the platform leader for its industry. But companies that cannot create their own multisided platforms can still use platform economics to partially transform their business models or find an economically viable role to play in platforms operated by others. For example, global brands including Kenzo, Burberry, and Versace joined Luxury Pavilion, a subset of Alibaba’s Tmall.com, as an entry channel into the lucrative Chinese luxury market at lower risk and cost rather than trying to build their own platform ecosystems.

推出一个成功的多边平台生态系统需要特定的经济条件、大量投资和强大的运气才能达到一定的盈利规模。因此，并不是每家公司都应该努力成为行业的平台领导者。但那些无法创建自己多面平台的公司，仍然可以利用平台经济学来部分改变其商业模式，或在他人运营的平台上找到经济上可行的角色。例如，高田贤三(Kenzo)、巴宝莉(Burberry)和范思哲(Versace)等全球品牌加入了阿里巴巴旗下天猫(tmall)旗下的奢侈品平台Luxury Pavilion，以更低的风险和成本进入利润丰厚的中国奢侈品市场，而不是试图建立自己的平台生态系统。

Transforming the Digital Platform  数字化平台转型

The foundation for digital transformation is a clean, well-structured digital platform — the technology, applications, and data that power a company’s business processes. None of the other digital elements can achieve their full promise without it.

数字化转型的基础是一个干净的、结构良好的数字化平台——支持公司业务流程的技术、应用和数据。没有数字化平台，其他数字化要素都无法完全实现它们的全承诺。

Advances in technology and methodology in recent years have made the challenge of building a solid digital platform simultaneously easier and tougher. Cloud computing, agile development methods, external code libraries, and easy-to-use development tools enable developers to build new functions rapidly but can also lead to the proliferation of inconsistencies and complex tangles of tech spaghetti. On the other hand, Agile, GitHub, DevOps, as well as containers and microservices, make it easier to coordinate changes; innovate quickly, safely, and smartly; and avoid reinventing the wheel. The digital platform has three interrelated but distinct elements that work together to power your company.

近年来技术和方法的进步使得建立一个坚实的数字化平台变得既容易又困难。云计算、敏捷开发、外部代码库和易于使用的开发工具使开发人员能够快速构建新功能，但也可能导致发展的不一致和复杂的技术方向。另一方面，Agile, GitHub, DevOps，以及容器和微服务，使支持变化变得更容易；迅速、安全、聪明地创新；避免重复工作。数字化平台有三个相互关联但又截然不同的要素，它们共同为公司提供动力。

The first element is thecore platform, a strong foundation for operational and transactional systems (back-office systems, systems of record, etc.) that power a company’s key processes. This core platform — an organization’s technology backbone — should be well structured, well managed, and only as complex as it really needs to be.

第一个要素是核心平台，它是驱动公司关键流程的操作型系统和事务型系统（后台系统、记录系统等的强大基础。这个核心平台——一个组织的技术支柱——应该是结构良好、管理良好的，并且只需要它做到真正需要的复杂度即可。

The second element is an agileexternally facing platformthat powers the websites, apps, and other processes that connect to customers and ecosystem partners. This platform is more than a pretty front end. It needs to work with the core platform to perform key transactions such as payments and serve as an attractive and agile platform for conducting customer-facing experiments and delivering personalized experiences.

第二个要素是一个灵活的面向外部的平台，为网站、应用以及其他连接客户和生态合作伙伴的流程提供动力。这个平台不仅仅是一个漂亮的前端。它需要与核心平台合作，执行关键交易，如支付，并作为一个有吸引力和灵活的平台，进行面向客户的实验并提供个性化的体验。

The third element is adata platformthat provides the ability to perform intense analytics, as well as build and test algorithms, without disrupting the company’s operational systems. In recent years, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in algorithms that use unstructured data — such as text, images, and voice — to improve customer experience or internal operations, making data platforms a key component of digital innovation.

第三个要素是数据平台，它提供了执行密集分析的能力，以及构建和测试算法，而不破坏公司的运营系统。近年来，我们看到使用非结构化数据（如文本、图像和语音）来改善客户体验或内部运营的算法大幅增加，使数据平台成为数字创新的关键组成部分。

Along with these technology and architecture elements, we’ve seen the dawning of a hard-won recognition of the importance of the IT function in making digital transformation work. Many first-wave digital transformations did not include IT as a partner and failed as a result. Now, IT leaders are driving digital transformation in some companies. In other companies, IT and digital and business leaders are working more closely together to make the digital transformation faster, more innovative, more comprehensive, and more effective than before.

随着这些技术和架构元素的出现，我们看到了来之不易的对IT职能在数字化转型中的重要性的认识。许多第一波数字化转型没有将IT职能作为合作伙伴，结果以失败告终。现在，IT领导者正在一些公司推动数字化转型。在其他公司，IT、数字化和业务领导人正在更紧密地合作，以使数字化转型比以前更快、更创新、更全面和更有效。

Digital transformation has risen much higher on the corporate agenda since our article and book in 2014, and the drive to maintain operations disrupted by COVID-19 has made it an even higher priority. But even as companies have had to move quickly to adjust to the realities of a global pandemic, their leaders also need to take a longer view. They need to consider how digital technologies can be used not only to enhance their products and processes but also to reinvent their businesses. In this article, we have shared examples that can help executives identify opportunities to increase digital capability across the business. This digital capability and the leadership capability to envision and drive organizational change are the key ingredients for meeting this challenge.

自2014年我们的文章和著作发表以来，数字化转型在企业议程中的地位上升了很多，维持因新冠病毒而中断的业务的努力使其成为更高的优先事项。但是，即使企业必须迅速采取行动，以适应全球流行病的现实，它们的领导人也需要有更长远的眼光。他们需要考虑如何利用数字技术，不仅加强他们的产品和流程，而且重塑他们的业务。在本文中，我们分享了一些例子，这些例子可以帮助高管识别在整个业务中增加数字能力的机会。这种数字化能力以及预见和推动组织变革的领导能力是应对这一挑战的关键因素。

About the Authors

Didier Bonnet (@didiebon) is affiliate professor of strategy and innovation at IMD Business School and executive vice president of Capgemini Invent. George Westerman (@gwesterman) is senior lecturer with the MIT Sloan School of Management and principal research scientist for workforce learning in MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab.

References (23)

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