Book on Digital Transformation

• How can digital business models be developed successfully and sustainably?

• What are necessary success factors in managing digital projects?

• How does Big Data become Smart Data?

It's the new buzzword, but what exactly is digital transformation, and how should companies manage it? In the book by Prof. Oliver Gassmann and me, we investigate exactly this question. Three Zühlke colleagues, experts in their various fields, each contributed one chapter. The revised and updated second edition has now been published.

The more often people talk about digitalization or digital transformation, the greater the uncertainty: How can a company change its processes or even its culture? Which details determine success and failure? How can business goals be achieved and customer needs met at the same time? Our book "Digitale Transformation gestalten" (Shaping Digital Transformation) provides answers to all these questions - comprehensive, up-to-date and specific.

Philipp Morf: AI initiatives in businesses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not a new topic, but it is currently a very big one. The reason for this is the technological upsurge in recent years. Today we have huge amounts of data, powerful hardware and sophisticated algorithms. These three fundamentals enable countless applications for AI, with a particular focus at present in the areas of machine learning and deep learning. However, artificial intelligence will only add value when natural intelligence is also applied correctly. Managers need to know how to use artificial intelligence to address problems and measure results. Important points that Philipp Morf and Dr. Naomi Haefner from the University of St. Gallen deal with are the insidiousness of forecasts and the development of internal competencies.

For Philipp Morf, it is clear on the one hand that AI is a key technology for many industries and companies. On the other hand, proper embedding is crucial: business and technological competence are very important, but equally, the customer perspective must also be incorporated. When using AI, agile teams are beneficial - this can be true to the point where it even makes sense to set up a new business unit.
 

Raphael Reischuk: Let's Encrypt

Our encryption expert Raphael Reischuk takes us on a brief journey through time. In 1994, the first browser creators and website operators realised that communication between browser and server should be encrypted. That would provide the foundations for transactions such as e-banking, health services and the exchange of sensitive data. Unfortunately, the encryption system subsequently created did not solve every problem. Alongside the great power of the 'Certification Authorities' (CAs), new problems appeared.

In consequence, the CA "Let's Encrypt", founded in 2014, revolutionised certification in a short time and, as of September 2018, had already issued over 380 million certificates. The interesting thing about the fully automated verification is that on the one hand it leaves very little room for human error and on the other hand it is neither expensive nor complex.
 

Cédric Riester: Digitalisation in concrete terms

Examples such as Airbnb, WhatsApp or Instagram demonstrate very impressively how a digital product can conquer the world market within a short time. The fact that such start-ups - often from outside the industry - were successful also sparked curiosity about digital projects in large companies. For them to be successful, however, they must overcome various challenges. Cédric Riester and Robert Knop list five points that crop up time after time in numerous Zühlke projects.

The digital transformation within a company can only succeed if optimum basic conditions are created, the focus is clear and the goal is distinct. The company can then work out the action plan and implement the solution in an agile manner. In this chapter, the two authors clearly show that there are many things to consider when launching a digital product. But those who want to succeed against strong, sometimes global competition would do well to optimise their processes from the very beginning.
 

Putting practical experience into action

We see ourselves as partners for business innovation. This makes it all the more important for us to have a practical approach that helps our customers to make rapid yet sustainable progress. We are proud of our colleagues, who talk about their everyday working life and have thus succeeded in making an important contribution to a topical book.

About the book: "Digitale Transformation gestalten"

The book "Digitale Transformation gestalten" (Shaping Digital Transformation) by Philipp Sutter and Prof. Oliver Gassmann is published by Hanser Fachbuchverlag and is available there. The revised and expanded second edition was published in March 2019.