Revive
How to Transform Traditional Businesses into Digital Leaders

• Move from “reactive digital” to “transformative digital”
• Use digital capabilities to fundamentally change the way you lead, direct, and structure organizations and teams
• Stay focused on the “moving target” of digital best practices, and accelerate your progress towards digital maturity

REVIVE will help you build a core business model for creating your own digital disruptions—so you can deepen customer engagement, achieve unprecedented immediacy and efficiency, and dominate tomorrow’s markets. Packed with proven strategies, in-the-trenches techniques, and cutting-edge case studies, it will help you change the game before the game changes you.

It’s no longer enough to buy software, or even cloud services. To fully leverage the benefits of digital, you must transform your teams, processes, and how you think about your business. Jason Albanese and Brian Manning have helped dozens of top enterprises do all this. Revive shares the lessons they’ve learned, and gives you a complete, end-to-end methodology that works.

You’ll learn how to use digital to rapidly move the dial on short-term profitability. But that’s just the start. Revive will position you for long-term market leadership, by helping you capture new value from digital wherever great opportunities arise.

Most companies have only gone “skin deep” with digital—and they’ve only garnered a fraction of the value they could be earning. In Revive, two world-renowned digital business advisors show how to drive a full-scale digital transformation that breaks down organizational barriers, cuts costs, accelerates product/service delivery, and dramatically improves customer engagement.

Centric Digital co-founders Jason Albanese and Brian Manning draw on immense experience helping Fortune® 1000 companies succeed with digital strategies, platforms, and channels. They present data-backed insights into the ways midsize and large organizations are stuck hiring, managing, organizing, and leading in obsolete “analog” ways. Next, they offer proven, practical recommendations for fundamentally changing those behaviors to leverage the nearly boundless opportunities of digital.

Their complete Digital Transformation Methodology guides you through benchmarking your digital maturity, envisioning strategy, roadmapping your transformation, and implementing the capabilities you need to execute.

Revive’s multiple case studies show exactly how executives are applying these ideas to go far beyond incremental improvements, and change the game. If that’s what you want, Revive is your roadmap.

WHY TRADITIONAL COMPANIES ARE FAILING AT DIGITAL—AND HOW YOU CAN SUCCEED

Overcoming strategic, operational, technical, and market-related causes of failure

BENCHMARK, ENVISION, ROADMAP, AND BUILD

Quickly moving from where you are to where you want to be

LINKING YOUR AGILE AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATIONS

Helping your agile and digital transformations enable and support each other

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE, NEAR AND FAR

Ensuring your readiness for the next decade’s technology revolutions

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: The Essence of Digital 7

Industrial Revolution Similarities 7

How Digital Revolutionizes Business 10

Digital Is Core to Business 10

Digital Breaks Down Business Silos 10

Digital Gives Customers (A Loud) Voice 11

Digital Enables Big Bang Disruption 12

Chapter 2: The Difference Between Reactive and Transformative Digital 15

Defining Reactive Digital 15

Historical Reactive Digital Failures 17

Defining Transformative Digital 19

Traits Of Transformative Companies 21

Companies That Are Disrupting 23

Case Study: Uber 23

Case Study: Warby Parker 25

Case Study: Casper.com 26

Traditional Companies That Are Transforming 27

Case Study: Burberry 27

Case Study: Disney 29

Case Study: Nike 30

Case Study: UPS 32

Chapter 3: Why Traditional Companies Are Failing at Digital 34

Business Reasons Companies Fail at Digital 38

Not Capitalizing on Unique Differentiators 38

Having Digital Tactics without Digital Vision 38

Comparing Oneself to Competitors Only and Not Best Practices 39

Lack of Focus on Ongoing Customer and Client Engagement versus Just Sales 40

Marketplace Reasons Companies Fail at Digital 41

Customer Base Has Become More Digitally Sophisticated That Perceived 41

Lack of Focus on Creating Streamlined Intuitive Customer Experience 42

Lack of Understanding of How Digital Has Changed Desire for Ownership versus Sharing Economy 43

Lack of Ability to Quickly Adapt to Trends 43

Organizational Reasons Companies Fail at Digital 44

No Digital Leader with Decision Autonomy, Direct Budget, or P&L Responsibility 44

C-Suite and Leadership Not Involved in Company’s Digital Strategy 44

Digital Team Is Too Top Heavy or Bottom Heavy 44

Digital Not Embedded in Corporate Culture 45

Trying to Do Everything 100 Percent In-House or Outsourced 45

They Settle on the Wrong People in Key Digital Team Roles 45

Operational Reasons Companies Fail at Digital 46

Reliance on Traditional Heavy Processes and Reluctance to Lightweight Processes 46

Lack of Enterprise-Wide Digital Spend Oversight 47

Digital Is Controlled within Silos 47

Technology Reasons Companies Fail at Digital 48

Legacy Infrastructure Is the Excuse for Not Transforming 48

Lack of Internal Use of Social Collaboration Capabilities 48

Chapter 4: Unlocking Business Opportunity in Digital Trends 49

Reasons to Monitor Digital Trends 49

Identify New Business Models 50

Ward off Disruption 50

Better Understand Constituent Behavior 50

Predict the Future 51

Maximize Your Digital Maturity 51

Practical Steps to Put Digital Trends to Use 51

Understanding Trend Drivers 53

Consumer Behaviors Driving Trends 53

Environmental Drivers Influencing Trends 54

Innovations Enabling Trends 55

Trend Potential 56

Monitor Digital Trends 61

Identify What Matters to Your Company 61

Identify Your Customer or Constituent Personas 62

Identify the Digital Touchpoints Your Customers Most Connect with You Through 62

Identify Trend-Related Research and Data Sources 62

Define a Trend Scoring Model 62

Set a Recurring Trend Analyzation Process 63

Quantify Trend Opportunities to Prioritize Where to Focus 63

Action Steps 63

Chapter 5: Benchmarking Your Digital Capabilities and Maturity 64

The Layers of Digital Capabilities 64

Digital Channels 66

Digital Ecosystem 69

Digital Experience 74

Digital Features 77

Digital Platforms 78

Benchmark Your Capabilities 80

Anchor to a Digital Maturity Scale 80

Benchmark Best Practices, Not Just Competitors 83

Focus on Capabilities You Need to Win in 84

Repeat the Benchmark Regularly 84

Action Steps 85

Chapter 6: Envisioning Your Digital Strategy 86

Profile Your Digital Audience 86

A New Model to Understand Your Audience 86

Put a Digital Lens on Your Customer Segments 89

Align Users’ Needs and Business Goals 89

Journey Map Your Experience 91

Your Journey Map and Your User Base 91

Identify Key Touchpoints 93

Identifying/Defining Use Cases 94

Defining Enterprise Digital Strategy 95

The Importance of Visualizing Strategy 96

Visual Stories Pack More Details into Easily Digested and Sharable Information 97

Leverage Strategic Frameworks 97

Create Rapid Prototypes 97

How to Bring Your Strategy to Life Quicker 97

Use Sketches 99

Create Design Mockups 99

Build Responsive HTML Prototypes 100

Digital Demands Dynamic, Not Static Planning 100

Let Analytics Drive Your Strategy 100

Action Steps 103

Chapter 7: Roadmapping Your Digital Transformation 105

Objectives of a Digital Roadmap 105

A Digital Roadmap Is Easily Accessible 105

A Digital Roadmap Is Dynamic 106

A Digital Roadmap Is Social 106

A Digital Roadmap Is Visual 107

A Digital Roadmap Is Aligned to Business and Technology Roadmaps 107

A Digital Roadmap Is Easy to Understand 108

Components of a Digital Roadmap 108

Initiatives Are Organized by Release Dates 109

Initiatives Are Grouped by Categories 109

Initiative Costs Are Represented 109

Initiative Complexity Is Represented 109

Initiative Impact Is Represented 110

Prioritization of Initiatives and Features Is Represented 110

Technology Represented as Enabling Business Capabilities 110

Views of a Digital Roadmap 111

Quantifying Value 111

Action Steps 113

Chapter 8: Organizational Capabilities to Drive Digital Transformation 114

Choose the Right Digital Organization Model 116

Centralized Digital Team 116

Shared Digital Resources 117

Managed Digital Resources 118

Federated Digital Resources 118

Decentralized Digital Resources 118

Establish a Digital Center of Excellence 120

Appoint A Chief Digital Officer 121

Choosing the Right Candidate for CDO 122

Sharing Responsibilities with Similar Executive Roles 122

Define Standard Digital Team Roles 124

Example: Digital Strategy 124

Example: Product Management 125

Example: Digital Operations 125

Build Digital Talent and Culture 126

Development and Training 128

Leveraging Global Talent Remotely 128

Compete for the Right Digital Talent 129

Establishing a Digital First Culture 131

Cultivating Thought Leaders 132

Containing the Impact of Digital Resistors 133

Implement Enterprise-Wide Digital Governance Processes 135

Digital Budget Approvals 135

Digital Roadmap Prioritization 135

Digital Strategic Planning 136

Digital Results Measurement 136

Digital Program Communication 137

Action Steps 139

Chapter 9: Why Agile Transformation Is Critical to Achieving Digital Transformation 140

Agile Benefits Over Traditional Methodologies 141

Agile Gives Your Company/Team Real feedback from Real People in Real Time 142

Faster Time to Market with Greater Predictability 143

Agile Produces a Better Quality 143

Agile Gives You Early ROI and Early Risk Reduction 144

Agile Is Efficient 144

Leverage Common Agile Concepts 145

Sprints or Iterations 145

Product Owner 145

Scrum Team 145

ScrumMaster or Project Manager 146

Product Backlog 146

Sprint Planning Meeting 146

Daily Scrum or Standups 146

Sprint Review Meeting 147

Sprint Retrospective 147

Codeathons and Hackathons 147

Leverage Agile Tools 147

Action Steps 148

Epilogue: Examples of Digital Trends Accelerating the Digital Revolution 149

Industrial Internet of Things 150

Big Data Visualization 153

Universal Streaming Media 154

Virtual Care 155

Non-Banks 157

Autonomous and Connected Vehicles 158

Drones 160

Virtual Reality 161

Biometric Identification 162

Paperless and Cashless 163

Wi-Fi And Wireless Power Duo 164

Robotics 166

Index 169

JASON ALBANESE is CEO & Co-Founder of Centric Digital, a leading digital transformation solutions company. His vision and entrepreneurial skills accumulated during a successful career building innovative B2B digital companies has allowed him to turn Centric Digital into one of the fastest growing companies in America. Previously, he co-founded and served as CEO of SageSecure LLC, a digital asset management and risk company that also succeeded in delivering strategic growth to the Fortune® 1000 through digital products and services. Albanese writes a weekly business strategy column for INC .com, is author of Network Security Illustrated (McGraw-Hill, 2003), has been published in The Journal of Research and Practice in Information Technology (JRPIT), and holds a patent on an Internet-based distance learning system he co-designed. He serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee on the board of Partnership with Children, a non-profit focused on outreach to New York City public school students at risk of academic failure; and is an active member of Young Presidents Organization, serving on the board of YPO Manhattan in the role of Member Integration Committee chair.

BRIAN MANNING is President, Chief Digital Officer & Co-Founder of Centric Digital. He has leveraged his deep digital expertise and creativity to shape Centric Digital’s brand and market position into the strategic partner of choice for the world’s largest enterprises. Manning started his career at Accenture and since went on to lead digital businesses within global enterprises, such as Citigroup and spinoffs such as Barnes & Noble.com. He has managed $500+MM e-commerce businesses, defined multi-billion dollar consumer digital bank strategies, and launched dozens of digital products. Manning’s passion for all things digital sets a high bar for Centric Digital’s clients, partners and employees. Chief Digital Offic

The complete executive’s guide to achieving long-term business objectives by leveraging digital strategies, channels, and platforms

• Helps leaders of traditional organizations break down barriers, revamp the way they lead, direct, and structure organizations, and supercharge growth
• Offers practical insights on strategizing to leverage analytics, mobile, responsive websites, cloud platforms, and more
• Tightly links the use of digital technology to improved efficiency, increased customer engagement, and lower costs
• Includes MBA-level case studies and study questions that fill a major gap in the literature on digital business