Digital Disruption

Digital disruption is all around us; it has been for a while and continues to leave its mark. Depending on which industry you are working at you will see the impact of the digital era and its disruption more clearly, and that is highly dependent upon the business and operating model of your enterprise. Olanrewaju and Willmott speak in regards to this in their article, Finding your Digital Sweet Spot. This article speaks in regards to the potential impact of digital and how it varies by industry.

The article covers three clusters of industries that face varying levels of change in regards to digital transformation. There are the long-term multi-channel industries, like grocery retailing and apparel, which despite innovations in that sector are not as heavily impacted, in terms of digital, at least as compared to the “eye of the storm” industries, such as retail banking and mobile telecommunications, which are highly susceptible to digital disruption, due to having a cost base which is largely focused on processing and servicing. Then the authors speak about the “new digital normal” industries, which have completed several rounds of digital disruption, like music retailing, airlines and hotels. This article is a good exercise in terms of making you think where your industry finds itself in terms of digital disruption and how much change is expected in those sectors as a factor of that disruption.

One thing is certain, digital can reshape all aspects of any modern enterprise and that is why the modern Enterprise Architect must ensure that the EA (Enterprise Architecture), instead of being an agent of change, that it becomes an architect of change, as Bloomberg points out. The typical EA and the outdated frameworks will not be agile enough to support the digital goals of the business, and depending of the industry, that business may not be able to survive without fast adoption of the changes that must occur as a factor of digital disruption.

I think an important aspect of allowing the digital transformation to take place is to, as Larry Hawes notes on his Network of Services article, think of enterprise software, and the stack, as a “network of functionality that helps all constituents of the business achieve their objectives”, which will in turn allow software functionality in the enterprise to flow dynamically and fluently, better serving the different lines of business all across the enterprise. The old layered and hierarchical approaches will not be able to allow for digital transformation to occur as swiftly as it should in order to combat digital disruption, especially if you find yourself in the “eye of the digital storm”, as far as your industry goes.

References

Bloomberg, J. (2016, June 16). Change As Core Competency: Transforming The Role Of The Enterprise Architect. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2016/06/16/change-as-core-competency-transforming-the-role-of-the-enterprise-architect/#67240731164a

Hawes, L. (2012, March 15). Enterprise Software Architecture: A Network of Services, Not a Layered Stack. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/larryhawes/2012/03/14/enterprise-software-architecture-a-network-of-services-not-a-layered-stack/#5c37fdb07229

Olanrewaju, T., & Willmott, P. (n.d.). Finding your digital sweet spot. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/finding-your-digital-sweet-spot.