Steven M. Stone’s scientific contributions

Stone summarizes all of the Deaf Diagnostics identified throughout chapters one through eight. He builds an easy reference guide to explain the importance of each diagnostic, how to identify the diagnostic in an organization, and actions to diminish or eliminate the impact of the diagnostic.

For publically traded companies, the board of directors plays an important role in establishing the tone and vision for all major business initiatives. Stone examines the traditional composition of the board of directors for corporations and highlights the skill gaps that hinder the board’s efforts to positively impact digital technologies. Stone explains why the board composition must change to incorporate new technical competencies to enable better support and sponsorship for digital transformation. He provides insights into alternatives for establishing the level of technical competence needed by boards to play a critical role in enterprise digital initiatives.

The role of the technology leader in organizations is rapidly evolving. Stone covers the emergence of new technology roles in organization such as the Chief Digital Officer, Chief Data Officer, and Chief Innovation Officer among others and how these roles should mesh with the current IT structure. He discusses the pitfalls of fractured leadership in technology and the need to build the right organizational structure to enable success. Stone provides insights from previous large transformation efforts and the importance of choosing the right leadership and structure to enable success.

Digital transformation significantly increases the pressure of IT organizations to deliver. Traditional IT approaches and organizations will struggle to deliver at the pace needed to ensure success in digital transformation. Stone discusses the pressures facing IT organizations and the relevant changes needed to enable the agility and responsiveness demanded by businesses. Stone reviews how modern technology tools, techniques, processes, and methods must be deployed to enable the speed and agility of IT organizations. He wraps up this discussion by emphasizing the importance of developing strong analytics and data competencies to form the core of a digital technology strategy.

Stone introduces the reader to the disruption being wrought by digital technologies across all industries. He provides an imperative for organizations to change in order to remain relevant in the marketplace. To highlight specific organization inhibitors to digital transformation Stone introduces the concept of a “Deaf Diagnostic”. The Deaf Diagnostic is an organization behavior, process, or culture that impedes or halts the digital transformation process. Finally, Stone positions the reader for what to expect by providing a short synopsis of the remaining chapters.

All projects and transformation efforts rely on a common component: people. Stone discusses the roles of leadership and talent in transformation. He identifies key characteristics needed by leadership to guide the organization through the complex transformation journey. Stone discusses the significant role of culture in digital transformation. In this discussion he highlights key characteristics needed in organizational culture to enable successful digital transformation.

Stone discusses the starting point for all transformation efforts: the establishment of a common understanding, or alignment, between organization leaders, staff, and information technology. He describes the role of the organization leaders in “setting the table” for success, including the creation and deployment of an agile governance and funding model to enhance organization speed and flexibility.

How do organizations avoid becoming digitally deaf? Stone defines the COMPETE framework that establishes the foundation elements for an organization’s digital journey. He highlights how executive leadership can use the outputs of the COMPETE model to establish the right messaging and tone to drive digital transformation initiatives across the enterprise. Stone closes with a discussion of the relationship between the business and IT and the need for continuous feedback during transformation efforts.

Stone defines the core issues in reaching a consistent definition of the term “digital transformation.” He creates a definition and understanding of digital technologies and digital transformation by examining how digital impacts customer relationships, data, roles and responsibilities in an organization. Stone advocates for the need for digital platforms to enable the speed and agility needed to effectively compete in the new competitive landscape. Leveraging this information, Stone develops a definition of digital transformation to establish context for the remainder of the book.

At the core of digital transformation is an intertwined series of technology and business projects. Stone examines why projects fail and the steps needed to mitigate the risk of failure. He addresses the need for strong project ownership, staffing for success, selecting the right partners and solutions, and positioning each project for successful execution. Stone completes this discussion by stressing the importance of changing from traditional project mindsets to building digital platforms to enable agility and extensibility.