Creating new business models where digital meets physical
Businesses today are undertaking digital transformations, rethinking what customers value most and creating operating models that take advantage of what’s newly possible for competitive differentiation. The challenge for business is how fast and how far to go.
[source: IBM] Business leaders have long used information technology to improve productivity and efficiency, reach new markets and optimize supply chains. What’s new is that customer expectations have also changed. People everywhere are using social networks to find jobs and restaurants, lost friends and new partners – and, as citizens, to achieve common political goals. They are using the Internet for entertainment, shopping, socializing and household management.
How can businesses best respond to this shift? How can they take advantage of the opportunity to innovate, differentiate and grow? And how can they do all this cost efficiently, leveraging and optimizing the newest information technologies as part of their overall physical operations? In our analysis of leading companies and our work with clients, we have found that companies with a cohesive strategy for integrating digital and physical elements can successfully transform their business models – and set new directions for entire industries.
These companies focus on two complementary activities: reshaping their customer value propositions and reconfiguring operating models using digital technologies for greater customer and partner interaction and collaboration. To do so, they are building a new set of capabilities that allows them to progress along both dimensions.