Digital Doesn’t Have to Be Disruptive

在一间可以俯瞰平静的日内瓦湖的餐厅，我们和一家全球巨头公司的高级副总裁共进午餐，午餐持续时间很长，临近结束时这位高级副总裁向我们坦言，“我们公司有十多个数字化转型委员会，也有很多数字化转型的举措，可以说是在全力以赴地进行数字化转型......但是没人能给我解释清楚，数字化转型到底意味着什么。”

Near the end of a long lunch overlooking tranquil Lake Geneva, a senior vice president at a leading global company confessed to us: “We have a dozen committees on digital transformation; we have digital transformation initiatives; we are going full steam on digital transformation…but no one can explain to me what it actually means.”

对于这个问题，最基本答案是:数字化转型被大家说得太多了，简单来讲，它意味着调整机构战略和构架，抓住数字技术带来的机会。这个挑战并不新鲜，毕竟计算机和软件已经存在了数十年，改变了产品、服务和人类生产及交付产品的方式。但这位高级副总裁想说的是，对企业来说，弄懂数字化转型的本质，转化为可践行的计划，变得越来越难了。如今，人们可以将计算机装进兜里，戴在手腕上，过去由人类完成的任务(例如管理支出)，越来越多地通过软件应用，由机器自动完成，硬件虚拟化程度有所增强，产品和服务的定制化程度达到史上最精准。

At a very basic level, the answer is simple: The much-used term simply means adapting an organization’s strategy and structure to capture opportunities enabled by digital technology. This is not a new challenge—after all, computers and software have been around for decades and have brought changes both to products and services and to how we make and deliver them. But the point the SVP was making is that it has become increasingly difficult for a company to translate that answer into an action plan. Computers today can fit in your pocket or on your wrist, and the software applications that run on them increasingly enable the automation of tasks traditionally done by humans (such as managing expenses), the virtualization of hardware, and ever more targeted product and service customization.

更重要的是，无论你身处何地，都能接触到这些应用: 嵌入各种设备和交互接口的传感器可以实时传输数据，提供更多决策所需信息，让基于算法的推荐更精准。简言之，数字技术不囿于IT领域，其应用几乎涉及企业价值链的各个部分。因此，对管理者来说，弄懂数字化转型的意义，知道要抓住哪些机会，优先采取什么举措，并非易事。

What’s more, these apps can reach people everywhere: Sensors embedded in devices and interfaces permit the real-time feed of data, allowing even more informed decision making and machine-driven recommendations. In short, digital technology is no longer in the cordoned-off domain of IT; it is being applied to almost every part of a company’s value chain. Thus it’s entirely understandable that managers struggle to grasp what digital transformation actually means for them in terms of which opportunities to pursue and which initiatives to prioritize.

面对这一现实，很多管理者难免会认为，数字化转型意味着彻底的颠覆，追加技术投资，完全从实体转向线上，收购科技初创公司。在某些案例中，的确涉及这类思维范式的转换，但我们的研究和工作表明，对多数公司来说，数字化转型绝非彻底颠覆和破旧立新。改变必然存在，企业有时必须彻底更新制造流程、分销渠道或商业模式;但数字化转型更多意味着通过渐进式的措施，更好地实现企业的核心价值主张。

Faced with this reality, it’s not surprising that many managers expect digital transformation to involve a radical disruption of the business, huge new investments in technology, a complete switch from physical to virtual channels, and the acquisition of tech start-ups. To be sure, in some cases such a paradigm shift is involved. But our research and work suggest that for most companies, digital transformation means something very different from outright disruption, in which the old is swept away by the new. Change is involved, and sometimes radical replacements for manufacturing processes, distribution channels, or business models are necessary; but more often than not, transformation means incremental steps to better deliver the core value proposition.

我们采访了通过授课认识的60多家公司的数百名高管，将在下文分享我们从中获得的研究洞见，解开数字化转型的几个关键迷思，帮助高管更好地理解公司应对当前趋势的方法。

In the following pages we draw on the insights we have gathered—from interviews with more than 60 companies and from the hundreds of senior leaders with whom we have interacted while teaching—to dispel some critical myths about digital transformation and to offer executives a better understanding of how businesses need to respond to the current trends.

一些管理者认为，想要实现数字化转型，公司必须彻底改变价值主张或冒险经历颠覆浪潮。

Some managers believe that to achieve a digital transformation, they must dramatically alter their company’s value proposition or risk suffering a tidal wave of disruption.

结果，很多企业在数字化转型初期，希望像苹果公司一样，打造一款能够满足顾客全新需求的高科技核心产品或平台。虽然这种情况也有成功者，但我们认为，多数公司服务的顾客需求并不会改变。挑战在于，如何找到一种最佳方式，通过数字化工具满足这些需求。正如法国高端时尚零售公司老佛爷百货(GaleriesLafayette)的一位高管告诉我们的“，这是又一次现代化的过程。我们公司已经走过百年历程，目睹了历史上其他各种变革，包括大型综合超市、购物中心、专业连锁店、快消时尚，之后经历了品牌零售商化，最后是电子商务。”

As a result, at the start of many digital transformations, companies aspire to be like Apple and try to find a new high-tech core product or platform that will serve brand-new customer needs. Although some might succeed, we believe that the customer needs most companies serve will look much the same as before. The challenge is to find the best way to serve those needs using digital tools. As the senior executive of Galeries Lafayette, a high-end French fashion retailer, told us, “This is another modernization. We have been around for more than 100 years, and we have had to undergo other changes in our history, such as the arrival of hypermarkets, shopping malls, specialty chains, fast fashion, brands becoming retailers, and finally e-commerce.”

集装箱公司马士基(Maersk)的例子可以很好地解释这一点，全球贸易壁垒和国内供应链的低效，影响了货运成本。该行业还缺乏透明度。这些挑战都存在已久。

The shipping container company Maersk provides a good example of what this executive meant. The costs of shipping are affected by global trade barriers and inefficiency in international supply chains. The industry also suffers from a lack of transparency. These are familiar challenges.

马士基通过数字化找到了解决这些挑战的新方法。公司和IBM及政府合作，部署了区块链技术，从单一源头快速安全获得端到端供应链信息。这一技术还能接收来自传感器的实时数据，确保跨机构工作流程的可靠性，降低了行政支出，获得更优化的全球货运风险评估。通过转变，马士基得以更好地服务核心顾客，但是它并没有转型为谷歌。它的价值主张仍然是做一家货运公司，为顾客提供快捷、可靠、价格合理的服务，只不过有了数字化技术的辅助，它有潜力成为流程最优化、最透明的公司。

What digital did for Maersk was provide a new way of overcoming them. The company partnered with IBM and government authorities to deploy blockchain technology for fast and secure access to end-to-end supply chain information from a single source. The technology, coupled with an ability to receive real-time sensor data, allows trustworthy cross-organization workflows, lower administrative expenses, and better risk assessments in global shipments. This shift allows Maersk to serve its core customers better. But Maersk has not been transformed into Google. It remains a company whose value proposition is providing a fast, reliable, cost-efficient shipping service—one with the potential to be more streamlined and transparent, thanks to a smart leveraging of digital technology.

俄罗斯航空公司Aeroflot也是一例。该公司从全球最差航空公司转变为最优秀的公司之一。根据公司提供的数据，用户净推荐值从2010年的44%变为2016年的72%，载客量从2009年的64.5%增长到2016年的81.3%。那么，Aeroflot是怎么做到的?公司利用数字技术，极大地提升了运营、汇报、乘客预订、航班安排和乘客服务等核心任务。特别值得一提的是，公司创建了一个可以让管理层即刻了解超过450个关键绩效指标(KPI)的仪表盘。

Another good example is the Russian airline Aeroflot, which has transformed itself from one of the world’s worst airlines into one of the best, with a Net Promoter Score that rose from 44% in 2010 to 72% in 2016 and a passenger load that grew from 64.5% in 2009 to 81.3% in 2016, according to company data. How? The airline used digital technology to significantly improve core activities: operations, reporting, passenger booking, scheduling, and customer care. Specifically, it created dashboards that provide management with an instant overview of more than 450 key performance indicators.

公司还通过安装在飞机上的传感器收集信息，观察飞机的各项数据及定期检修情况，从而降低运营成本。由于员工现在可以在仪表盘上找到公司数据，回复记者问询的工作容易了很多，公关部因此减少了人员数量。此外，Aeroflot还重新设计了网络架构，在运营主要航线的同时，兼营一个廉价航空——几乎没有其他航空公司成功做到这一点。同样，公司的价值定位并未改变，它仍然是一家为乘客提供服务的航空公司，出售飞往各个目的地的机上座位，只不过通过数字工具让自己变得更高效，对顾客更友好。

The company also aggregates information from sensors installed on the planes, allowing visibility into aircraft performance and preventive maintenance and thereby reducing operating costs. The PR department was even able to lower its headcount, because responding to journalists’ inquiries about company data now requires less effort: It’s all available on the dashboard. In addition, Aeroflot repurposed the digital architecture created to run the main airline to simultaneously run a low-cost carrier—something few other airlines have succeeded in doing. Once again, nothing has altered the company’s raison d’être: It remains a passenger airline, selling seats on planes to many different destinations. It’s just a more efficient and user-friendly one through the use of digital tools.

尽管如此，不要误以为这代表颠覆不会发生，事态发展速度极快，原地踏步的企业会被那些成功完成数字化转型的公司颠覆，至少会被超越。但是，即使在数字化颠覆最严重的经典行业，如果你深入观察，也会看到更复杂的真相。是否会被颠覆，取决于你为顾客提供的服务。如果和新进入的颠覆者相比，在位企业可以使用数字化工具，更好地满足顾客需求，仍然会繁荣发展。

This is not to say that disruption doesn’t occur. Make no mistake: Things are changing quickly, and companies that do nothing will be either disrupted or at a minimum outcompeted by those that transform using digital tools. But even in the classic industries where disruption strikes hardest, the story is always a little more complicated when you look below the surface. Whether you are disrupted or not always depends on the job you do for customers. If an incumbent can use digital tools to meet customers’ needs better than a disruptive new entrant can, it will still prosper.

以出租车行业为例。谈到数字化颠覆的例子，最常被提及的是优步给出租车行业带来的影响。优步出现时，出租司机认为生计受到威胁，在全球范围内发起罢工，特别是在作者的家乡巴黎。对此，公众仍然记忆犹新。但直到今天，巴黎的出租汽车公司依然发展良好。G7是一家成立于1905年的传统出租车公司。和巴黎很多出租车公司一样，这家公司的司机服务也是出了名的粗鲁无礼。现在呢?和优步一样，G7也开发了一个可以让乘客通过手机预约车辆的app。这个app提供的服务有:拼车、普通出租车、环保车(混合动力或者电动车)，小货车和VIP服务。你可以通过app从路边打车，或者直接搭乘等客出租，通过司机的4位编码付款。

Take the taxi business. Uber’s impact on taxis is one of the most frequently cited examples of digital disruption. The public remembers taxi drivers’ striking around the world—notably including in Paris, our hometown—in the face of what seemed to be an existential threat to their livelihoods. But today taxi companies in Paris are thriving. G7 is a traditional taxi company founded in 1905. It once had a reputation in Paris, as did many other taxi companies, for its drivers’ rudeness. Fast-forward to the present: Like Uber, G7 has developed an app that allows customers to book a taxi. The app offers various service levels: sharing, regular cab, green (hybrid or electric), van, and VIP. You can use the app to hail a car from the curb, or you can jump into one standing at the corner, and you can pay the driver with the app using his or her four-digit code.

不过，G7和优步有几个重要区别:G7的司机驾驶技术更专业，车辆更整洁，你可以根据自己的时间表叫车，不必像优步那样受15分钟局限。最重要的是，尽管平均而言，G7可能比优步贵一些，但在乘客最需要车辆的时候，它的价格便宜很多:优步会强制收取两倍、三倍甚至高达八倍的高峰叫车费，而G7的收费一致。很明显，优步的出现迫使传统出租车公司改进了自身服务:G7司机现在需要学习礼仪课程。但你不能说数字化的出现彻底转变了G7的价值定位。

But G7 differs from Uber in some important ways: Its drivers are better trained, the cars are cleaner, and you can prebook a ride for exactly the time you want it, instead of in a 15-minute window. More important, although a G7 might be slightly more expensive on average than an Uber, it is vastly less expensive when you most need it: Uber imposes surge pricing, multiplying your fare twofold, threefold, or even eightfold, while G7’s prices remain constant. It’s clear that Uber’s arrival forced traditional taxi companies to improve their service: G7 drivers now take etiquette lessons. But it’s hard to argue that the advent of digital necessitated a wholesale reinvention of G7’s value proposition.

同样，酒店业也是遭受数字化冲击最严重的行业之一。首先出现了Expedia这样的线上代理，接着是Airbnb这样的平台，现在谷歌等搜索引擎的提供商也加入竞争行列。我们采访了万豪集团的CEO苏安励(Arne Sorenson)，谈及数字技术的影响，他并未对威胁轻描淡写:“数字力量肯定是革命性的，而且很强大，有时会令人生畏，”他说，“在争夺顾客方面，我们绝对是在正面交战。”

Likewise, the hotel business has been among the industries most threatened by the rise of digital technologies, first from OTA (over-the-air) players like Expedia, next from platforms like Airbnb, and now from search providers like Google. When we interviewed Marriott’s CEO, Arne Sorenson, about the impact of digital technologies, he didn’t downplay the threat. “The digital forces are clearly very revolutionary and powerful and can be frightening at times,” he said. “We are in an absolute war for who owns the customer.”

苏安励强调，技术将是赢得这场战争的主要因素:“我们要确保使用技术让运营和服务更高效，创造出黏性很高的数字平台，同时确保平台足够大，为客户提供价值，让他们直接在官网订房。我们并非要战胜谷歌，而是希望确保顾客感到宾至如归。这一切必须通过数字平台来实现，但这个平台的目的是和顾客互动。”这也是万豪一直在做的。尽管公司推出了和Airbnb竞争的平台，导流顾客到万豪官网，但它也在专注自己最大的优势——打造一流酒店，为顾客提供出色的服务。那些曾在万豪或姐妹酒店喜达屋下榻过的顾客都知道，在一般的Airbnb民宿，他们不太可能享受到前者提供的奢华床垫和床品。

Sorenson emphasized that technology would be a major factor in winning the war: “We have to make sure we are using technology to be more efficient in our operations, deliver service, and create a great loyalty digital platform, but also make sure we have a platform that is big enough and delivers value to our customers so that they book directly with us. We are not going to out-Google Google, but we want to make sure we have a community of folks who can relate to us. It must be through a digital platform. But that platform is about engaging our customers.” And that is something Marriott has always done. Although it has launched platforms to compete with Airbnb and drive customers directly to its own site, it’s also focusing on what it does best—delivering a great hotel and customer experience. Those who have stayed with Marriott or its sister company Starwood know they’re unlikely to get the luxurious mattress and bedding these hotels are famous for at a typical Airbnb.

数字平台不会改变公司的立身之本，理解了这点，可以帮助你找到公司应该关注的技术。那些认为数字化颠覆需要彻底重塑公司核心业务的管理者，最终会迷失方向。但是，如果企业将重点放在如何更好地解决顾客需要，会更关注对顾客影响最大的技术(例如客户体验或关系协同)或者核心能力(例如成本协同效应)。你的公司和马士基、Aeroflot以及G7一样，很可能在数字时代继续服务同样的核心客户，这些客户的需求不会改变，但企业肯定可以通过数字化，更好地为顾客提供服务。

Understanding that digital transformation does not change the reason your business exists will help you identify the technologies you should focus on. Managers who believe that digital disruption requires wholesale reinvention of the core business end up running in a thousand directions. But if the challenge is simply to better address their customers’ jobs to be done, they will most likely focus on the technologies that have the greatest effect on their customers (such as customer experience or relationship synergies) or their core capabilities (such as cost synergies). Your company, just like Maersk, Aeroflot, and G7, can probably continue to serve the same core customers even in the digital era. And the needs of those customers won’t change—although digital will certainly provide a better way of catering to them.

数字化通常会淘汰低效的中介和造价昂贵的实体基础设施，但并不意味着实体会完全消失。事实上，很多零售商正在寻找线上线下的结合方式，以便发挥出两者优势，关于这方面的报道很多。不仅零售商，很多其他2C的公司也有相同趋势。

There is no doubt that digital often enables the elimination of inefficient intermediaries and costly physical infrastructure. But that doesn’t mean the physical goes away entirely. In fact, as has been well documented, many retailers are finding ways to create a hybrid of physical and digital that taps into the advantages of each. And it’s not just retailers—the same trend can be seen in many other consumer-facing businesses.

老佛爷百货是零售业的经典案例。尽管来自线上店铺的竞争激烈，老佛爷百货深知，只有一砖一瓦搭建的实体店铺，才能为顾客提供真实的购物感受，这点很重要。两种模式各有优势:实体店可以和顾客建立情感联结，线上(特别是AI)店铺可以帮助企业更好地了解顾客需要。过去企业过度关注产品，对顾客关注不够，混合模式可以让顾客成为业务中心。

In retail, Galeries Lafayette provides a classic example. Despite intense competition from online stores, GL recognizes the importance of physical proximity to the customer, which only a brick-and-mortar store can offer. Both models have advantages: Physical helps build an emotional relationship with customers, while digital (especially AI) helps better understand customers’ needs. Whereas in the past companies focused too much on the product and not enough on the customer, hybrid models can put the customer at the center of the business.

老佛爷百货希望进一步了解顾客，同时与其建立情感联结。公司在香榭丽舍大街的新店铺，无缝融合了线上线下。商场出售的奢侈品经过精心挑选和陈列，店铺销售人员擅长和顾客互动，精通时尚搭配和社交媒体。这些员工作为私人购物顾问或造型师，会和顾客建立情感联结，让实体店铺成为最先吸引顾客的场所和接触点。购物者之后可以在交易中使用数字化辅助工具。新技术还能帮助销售人员“记住”顾客的信息和偏好，找出吸引他们的营销方式。

To ensure that it builds both an understanding of and an emotional connection with customers, the company is seamlessly blending the physical and digital worlds in its new store on the Champs-Élysées. The store will carry a curated selection of luxury items, and it will be staffed by salespeople hired for their ability to interact with visitors to the store, their expertise in fashion and style, and their facility with social media. These staffers, known as personal shoppers or personal stylists, will establish emotional relationships with their customers, making the physical store an initial customer attraction and touch point. Shoppers can then embark on digitally enabled transactions. The new technology will also help salespeople “remember” customers and their preferences and identify individualized perks that will appeal to them.

老佛爷百货在豪斯曼大街的旗舰店也在一定程度上开始这种结合，公司给员工配备了平板电脑。通过网络搜索，顾客在进店前对某些产品的了解，已经超过了销售人员。员工可以通过平板电脑搜索线上产品目录，获得和顾客同样多的信息。

GL has already gone partway down this road at its flagship Boulevard Haussmann store, where employees are equipped with tablets. Customers come to the store having obtained—through online searches—a lot more information about some products than the salespeople have. The tablets allow employees to quickly browse the online catalogue and become equally well informed.

购物者看重实体店，因为这里的产品看得见摸得着。他们可以在网上预留产品，到店铺试穿，不必承担购买压力。他们也可以网购，然后到店取货。无论哪种情况，销售人员必须知道如何成为顾客的私人购物顾问，产品和顾客数据会帮助他们实现。

Shoppers value a physical store visit because they can see and feel actual products. They can reserve items online and try them out in the store without obligation. Alternatively, they can buy products online and simply pick them up in the store. In either case, salespeople must understand how to act like personal shoppers, and the product and customer data they have enables them to do so.

很多纯数字化品牌也殊途同归。例如从创立之初就在线上零售的Bonobos，现在也开设了实体店铺，让顾客试穿产品。美国眼镜电商WarbyParker是另一家线上零售店。顾客购物后，公司会从中控库存直接发货。现在该公司也开始尝试实体店铺，为顾客打造舒适的购物体验。和老佛爷百货一样，这些零售商在解决数字化难以完全满足的顾客需求——建立情感联结，解决试穿或试戴的难题。同时，他们也在通过技术更好地利用数据，实现成本效率。在能源领域，我们也看到类似案例。

Many digital-first brands are converging on the same path. Bonobos, for example, which was born pure digital, now uses physical stores to let customers try on clothes. After a purchase the clothes are mailed directly from a centrally managed inventory. Warby Parker, another digital native, also now uses physical stores to create welcoming customer experiences. Like GL, these retailers are serving needs that digital meets poorly—creating emotional connections and dealing with the challenges of fitting clothing or eyewear—while using technology to leverage data and achieve cost efficiencies.

一些欧洲电气设施公司的智能互联家居系统，包含了恒温控制器、各类传感器及探测器，通过这种方式，公司有效利用了实体和数字化的双重优势。谷歌和亚马逊也进入了智能家居设备市场，但电气设施公司的优势在于它们拥有工程师(或者可信赖的承包商)，客户在安装、维修方面信任这些专业人士，公司因此拥有了智能恒温控制器的价值定位。一些公司还能提供定期维修:如果传感器监测到供暖系统可能会出故障，会通过恒温控制器提醒客户，客户可以预约工程师上门提前维修。

We’re seeing something similar in the energy sector. Several electric utility companies in Europe have effectively combined the advantages of physical and digital in their connected home systems, which contain smart thermostats and a variety of sensors and detectors. Google and Amazon have entered the market for smart home devices, but utilities have the advantage of engineers (or selected contractors) who back the smart thermostats’ value proposition—and customers trust those people to do installation, maintenance, and repair. Some of these companies enable preventive maintenance: If a sensor indicates that a heating system is about to break, the customer is alerted through the thermostat and can schedule an engineer’s visit in advance.

这样的操作也会帮助工程师在上门服务前，了解问题所在，准备好合适的工具。线上线下的无缝整合，减少了上门次数和零部件损耗，同时还能让顾客安心。

The same alert helps the engineer understand the problem before the visit and arrive with the right equipment to fix it. This seamless integration of physical and digital can significantly reduce visits and parts used while granting the customer peace of mind.

TUIUK是一家旅行社，也是线上线下结合的代表。起初，旅游业在很大程度上被颠覆了，公司在市场上四面楚歌。但在开始数字化转型后，TUI发现虽然很多顾客想在网上定制旅行计划，但也希望能和门店员工交流，进一步了解复杂的旅游线路，从而安心出行。企业往往会通过并购创业公司，获得新技术或新创意。

TUI UK, a travel agency, has also turned to a hybrid of physical and digital. Initially it occupied a very precarious place—its industry is broadly viewed as being disrupted. But as it embarked on a digital transformation, the company discovered that although many customers wanted to make their travel plans digitally, they also wanted to interact with people in retail locations, asking questions and becoming comfortable with complex itineraries. Often companies try to access new technologies or ideas by acquiring start-ups and then integrating them.

这种方式的风险在于，可能会扼杀创业公司的文化，在过程中流失人才。明智的企业更希望能与创业公司建立强度适中的混合关系:可以向对方学习并找到协同效应，但又不至于摧毁创业公司的文化。因此，即便它们收购了创业公司，也会允许它们以半独立的方式运营。

This approach risks killing the start-up’s culture and chasing away the talent acquired during its creation. Smart companies prefer to build hybrid relationships with start-ups—strong enough to learn and find synergies but weak enough to avoid destroying the culture. So even though they may own the start-ups, they allow them to operate as semi-independent businesses.

在这方面，安富利(Avnet)就是一个很好的例子。这是一家市值190亿美元的全球技术解决方案提供商。这家公司完成了两项很重要的数字化收购:第一家是Hackster.io，来自全球的制造者在其平台上发布自己的新产品创意(例如监测城市噪声和污染水平的传感器、AR耳机、婴儿氧气监护仪等);另一家公司是Dragon Innovation，帮助企业弥合原型产品和产业规模化电子产品的鸿沟。这些公司以半独立实体的方式运营，安富利委派新兴业务副总裁戴娜·巴洪(Dayna Badhorn)和它们联络。她的任务是，防止收购公司受到母公司运营效率的负面影响，例如过度规划和过度缓慢的产品研发周期，同时帮助安富利学习这些公司敏捷和快速实验的重要性。Hackster和DragonInnovation称戴娜为“守护天使”。

Avnet, a $19 billion global technology solutions provider, is a good example. The company made two important digital acquisitions: Hackster.io, a platform that allows makers from around the world to post their ideas for new products (such as sensors to monitor city noise and pollution levels, augmented reality headsets, and baby oxygen monitors), and Dragon Innovation, a start-up that helps companies bridge the gap between made-for-prototype and industrial-scale electronic products. These companies operate as semi-independent entities and interact with Avnet through Dayna Badhorn, its vice president for emerging businesses. Her role is to protect the acquired companies from the inefficiencies—such as excessive planning and slow product development cycles—of the parent organization while helping Avnet learn agility and the importance of doing quick experiments. Hackster and Dragon Innovation call her their guardian angel.

老佛爷百货的经验再次印证了守护天使的重要性，该公司和包括历峰集团(Richemont)、家乐福(Carrefour)、拉加代尔旅行公司(Lagardère Travel)和Kiabi等在内的很多传统大型零售商合作，建立了初创企业加速器Lafayette PlugandPlay。尽管老佛爷的高管花了大量时间和加速器里的公司互动，但因为没有项目领导者跟进，公司最初很难将这些互动转化为老佛爷内部实际的项目。后来老佛爷百货任命了一位管理者解决这个问题，情况得到改善。老佛爷并没有收购加速器中的任何初创公司(不希望扼杀这些公司的创新文化)，而是通过指派一位管理者，长期和加速器中的企业联络沟通，维护亲密关系，执行合作项目。

The importance of a guardian angel is underlined by Galeries Lafayette’s experience with its start-up accelerator, Lafayette Plug and Play, in which several big traditional retailers, including Richemont, Carrefour, Lagardère Travel, and Kiabi, are partners. Although GL executives spend a lot of time interacting with start-ups in the accelerator, the company struggled at first to translate such interactions into tangible projects inside GL, because no project leader was assigned to follow through. The situation has improved since GL appointed a manager to fill that role. GL does not buy start-ups from the accelerator (to avoid killing their innovative culture), so having someone to permanently liaise with them helps it maintain close relationships with accelerator members and implement the resulting initiatives.

其他成员企业也效仿这种方式，从合作中获得更多收益。在各案例中，守护天使都致力于更好地利用双方机构的优势:努力维护初创企业的使命(从而激励多数人才留在公司)，保护初创企业不受大公司官僚体系和汇报机制的损害，降低效率。在这一前提下，将大公司的使命融入其中，帮助大公司充分利用初创企业的创意、流程、文化和技术。

The other corporate members have followed suit, and their uptake of collaborations has improved as well. In each case a guardian angel fights to take advantage of the best of both organizations, not only helping the start-up hold fast to its mission (which is what motivates much of the talent to stay) but also linking it to the mission of the larger organization while protecting the start-up team from all the bureaucracy and reporting that traditionally eat up company time. Meanwhile, the big company can take full advantage of the start-up’s ideas, processes, culture, and technology.

管理者往往认为，数字化转型主要涉及技术变革。技术变革当然会包含其中，但明智的企业懂得，变革最终是为了更好地服务顾客需求，无论是通过更高效的运营、大规模定制还是新产品和服务。为了实现这个目的，数字化会将此前孤立的活动联系起来，甚至必须联系起来，所以公司往往要重新组织人力和技术。在实践中，这也许会改变公司架构。例如，有时公司需要更敏捷的架构，必须组建内部小分队，既具备项目所需能力，也有决策权，全程跟进项目。尽管小分队是一个团队，但和多数大公司团队不同，它们就像创业者一样，有条件快速解决关键问题。

Managers often think that digital transformation is primarily about technology change. Of course technology change is involved—but smart companies realize that transformation is ultimately about better serving customer needs, whether through more-effective operations, mass customization, or new offers. Because digital enables—even demands—the connection of formerly siloed activities for this purpose, the company must often reorganize both people and technology. In practice this may mean changing structure—for example, in situations where a more agile structure is merited, creating internal squads with the capabilities and authority necessary to follow projects from beginning to end. Although a squad is a team, it differs from most big-company teams in being empowered to solve key problems quickly, as an entrepreneur would.

信用卡巨头万事达(Mastercard)通过系统化流程，组建此类小分队，并由万事达实验室监管。来自不同部门的员工可以提交创意，满足条件者获得奖励，创意分三个阶段:橙盒、红盒和绿盒。在橙盒阶段员工有机会探索并推销自己的创意，拥有1000美元的预付卡，并获得指导，向公司介绍他们将如何解决某个特殊的客户问题。在红盒阶段，员工将创意变为概念:团队会收到用于测试、开发原型和研究所需的2.5万美元，并获得90天的指导，找出优化这一概念所需的步骤。绿盒阶段则是在实验室的官方孵化项目中，打造一个商业化产品。在这个阶段，团队要停下手头的工作，在这一项目上工作六个月的时间。

The credit card giant Mastercard has a systematic process for building such squads, overseen by Mastercard Labs. Employees from various functional areas can submit ideas to qualify for three stage awards: Orange Box, Red Box, and Green Box. The Orange Box gives employees a chance to explore their ideas and pitch them. Recipients of this award receive a $1,000 prepaid card and coaching to develop a presentation about solving a specific customer problem. At the Red Box stage people turn an idea into a concept: The team receives $25,000 for testing, prototype development, and research and a 90-day guide outlining the steps needed to refine the concept. The Green Box was designed to create a commercialized product from an official incubation project inside the labs. At this stage team members leave their jobs for six months to work on the project.

一家大型国际银行ING向我们展示了如何让这样的小分队，在更传统的组织架构内工作。银行意识到，如果想让合适的员工参与跨部门项目，避免他们在前途暗淡的项目上耗时太久，公司需要帮助这些内部创业人员完成角色转换。银行开发了名为PIE的系列内部流程:P是保护(protect)，意味着停下手头工作，参与到小分队项目的员工，一旦项目失败，可以重返工作岗位;I代表独立(independence)，小分队成员有自己的资源，可自行决策;E是鼓励(encouragement)，如果小分队成功了，公司会在内部广为庆祝其成果。当然，公司必须允许小分队失败。即使是项目后期的失败，也不该危及个人职业生涯。ING的CEO拉尔夫·哈默尔(RalphHamers)说，“我们要诚实地面对失败。同时也要诚实地面对过程中学到的教训，并承认我们只用了竞争对手所用的一部分时间，以不同的方式，学到了这些教训。”

One major global bank, ING, teaches an important lesson about getting such squads to work in more-traditional organizational structures. It recognized that to assign the right employees to cross-company initiatives, and to keep them from staying too long on an initiative that should be cut, it needed to support these intrapreneurs in transitioning between roles. It has developed a set of internal processes called PIE: P for protect, meaning that employees who leave their jobs to work on a squad project can return to those jobs if the initiative fails; I for independence, meaning that squad members have their own resources and can make their own decisions; and E for encouragement, meaning that if the squad is successful, its work will be widely celebrated in the company. Of course, it must also be OK for these squads to fail. Failures, even relatively late ones, should not jeopardize a career. As ING CEO Ralph Hamers explains, “We have to be honest about failures. We also have to be honest about all that we learned in the process and that by using a different approach, we learned these lessons in a fraction of the time it takes competitors.”

企业还要考虑框架因素。挪威电信巨头Telenor(南森曾担任该公司咨询顾问)在数字化转型中，尝试重新定义工作内容。员工不再是监管各项职能和公司损益的“产品拥有者”，而是项目经理，负责设计顾客旅程。这一转变鼓励员工像简化版CEO一样工作，对外关注顾客问题，对内跨部门运作，给出解决方案。

There’s a framing aspect as well. As the Norwegian telecom giant Telenor (for which Nathan has done consulting) makes its digital transformation, it has experimented with job definitions. Instead of designating individuals as product owners—people who oversee functions and P&L—it now calls them project managers, responsible for designing the customer journey. This shift encourages them to operate like mini-CEOs, externally focused on the customer problem and able to work quickly across internal boundaries to deliver a solution.

最后很重要的一点是，企业要明白转型为小分队的过程可能会很痛苦。ING重组是一个极端案例，公司全面撤销了各部门和分部，采用敏捷组织架构，通过小分队完成优化顾客旅程的任务。重组时，仅用一周，所有员工都被解雇，然后以如何解决客户问题为标准，重新申请工作。ING在这类项目的帮助下，5年间将荷兰和比利时的员工数减少了30%-40%。并非所有转型都如此震荡，但在多数案例中，当工作被重新定义，摩擦在所难免。

Finally, it’s important to recognize that transitioning to squads can be a painful process. In a radical example of such reorganization, ING eliminated divisions and functions and instead embraced an agile organizational structure with squads tasked to deliver improved customer journeys. When it reorganized, over a weekend, all the employees were fired and had to reapply for their jobs, through the lens of the customer need they solved. With the help of these and similar initiatives, ING plans to reduce its head count in the Netherlands and Belgium by 30%–40% over a five-year period. Not all transitions will be so dramatic, but in most cases some friction is inevitable when jobs are redefined.

数字化转型最终也许要彻底变革后端遗留系统，但从一开始选择彻底变革IT部门会带来极大风险。明智企业会选择模块化的方式和敏捷形态，逐步缓慢变革遗留系统，同时快速开发前端应用。为此，公司可以构建中间交互界面，将前后端连接起来，或者当IT在改变后端的同时继续运作时，允许业务部门采取应对现状的必要解决方案。一段时间后，遗留系统可以逐渐退役，但不会耽误公司满足顾客需要的过程。

Digital transformation may ultimately require radically altering back-end legacy systems, but starting with a sweeping IT overhaul comes with great risks. Smart companies find a way to quickly develop front-end applications while slowly replacing their legacy systems in a modular, agile fashion. This can be achieved by building a middleware interface to connect the front and back ends, or by allowing business units to adopt needed solutions today while IT transforms the back end in an ambidextrous manner. Over time the pieces of the legacy system can be decommissioned, but progress in meeting customer needs doesn’t have to wait until then.

例如，TUI在开始数字化转型时，面临艰难挑战:公司在门店、电话和网络平台的业务互不相关，运营地区也不同。在英国的后端遗留系统已经运行35年了。当时对公司来说，技术至关重要:Expedia和其他在线旅游代理商全面威胁着旅行社的业务。在这种背景下，TUI彻底变革IT，开展数字化旅程，是很诱人的选择。

For example, when TUI embarked on its digital transformation, it faced a difficult challenge: Its business operations in retail, telephone, and online were geographically and operationally separate, and back-end reservations systems in the UK were 35 years old. Technology was critical for the company at the time: The rise of Expedia and other OTA channels was threatening to totally disrupt the travel agency business. In this context it was very tempting for TUI to start its digital journey with a sweeping IT overhaul.

但经验告诉我们，一次性取代多个复杂、关键任务系统往往会带来灾难。正如公司领导团队的成员之一杰克·西蒙斯(Jacky Simmonds)所说，“重点是勾画出理想化的客户旅程，看看如何通过数字化的方式盘活公司业务。”

But experience suggests that attempts to replace multiple complex, mission-critical systems all at once nearly always end in disaster. Instead, in the words of Jacky Simmonds, who was part of the leadership team, “the key was to envision the ideal customer journey and then see how it could make business sense through a digital lens.”

TUI没有进行全面“检修”，而是开始了更新技术的“三年计划”，先通过量身打造的解决方案，专注于为顾客提供更好的体验。

Rather than embark on a complete overhaul, TUI developed a three-year plan to replace its technology, initially working with bespoke solutions to focus on a better customer experience.

公司利用这段时间，了解客户在数字时代的需求，然后通过中间接口将前端应用和后端遗留系统联系起来。接着，公司将后端分解为模块化的子系统，缓慢淘汰，并随之增加前端功能。每次公司升级后端或前端的一个组件，首先要在单一市场测试，然后不断完善迭代原型，之后再和其他业务部门合作。

The company used this time to learn from customers what they wanted in a digital world. It then connected the front-end application to the legacy back end with a middleware interface. Next it divided the back end into modular subsystems and slowly replaced them, adding front-end functionality with each step. Every time the company upgraded a component of the back end or the front end, it first tested it in one market and then iterated the prototype to improve it before working with other business units.

由于市场的多样化，TUI决定不扩展遗留系统，但通过一以贯之的数字化战略，不同市场得以共同发展，技术投资的收益得到最大化。通过针对客户旅程的数字化转型，该公司十多年来稳步增长。

Although TUI decided not to roll its reservations system out more broadly, given the diversity of its markets, a coherent digital strategy allowed the markets to work together, maximizing the investment in technology. The company has enjoyed a decade of steady growth throughout its digitization of the customer journey.

中间界面的桥梁角色在金融服务领域尤为明显。2015年，欧洲议会采用了新的付款服务指令(PSD2)。立法目标之一，是让第三方开发商可以围绕一家金融机构构建应用和服务。如果个人客户对银行转账费用不满，根据PSD2，可以更简单地更换第三方提供的服务。德意志银行和位于匈牙利的OTP等银行没有坐等机构通过改变遗留系统，来解决PSD2带来的挑战，而是专注于构建应用程序接口(APIs)，借此将他们的遗留基础设施和外部服务提供商(例如TransferWise和AI赋能的理财顾问Wealthify)联系起来。

The bridging role of middleware interfaces is particularly apparent in the financial services sector. In 2015 the European Parliament adopted a new Directive on Payment Services (PSD2). One of the objectives of the legislation was to enable third-party developers to build applications and services around a financial institution. If an individual is unhappy with the bank’s money-transfer fees, PSD2 makes it easier for that person to use alternative services provided by a third party. Instead of waiting to change the legacy infrastructure to address the challenges of PSD2, institutions such as Deutsche Bank and the Hungary-based OTP have focused on building APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow them to connect external providers, such as TransferWise and the AI-enabled wealth adviser Wealthify, to their legacy infrastructure.

我们并非建议大型企业永远不去更新遗留系统。但是，不断推迟数字化转型，希望等到技术成熟，一次性解决问题，这样做很危险。如果你将问题分解成几个模块，创造中间界面，企业就能在维持核心运营稳定的情况下，不断尝试满足客户需求。

We aren’t suggesting that large companies can ignore the need to update legacy systems forever. However, postponing your digital transformation until you can update them fully or all at once is dangerous. If you break the problem into modules and create a middle-layer interface, you can maintain operational stability for the core of the organization while experimenting with satisfying customer needs.

对多数公司来说，即便真的面临颠覆威胁，数字化转型也不意味着要彻底重塑价值定位或商业模式。更好的做法是，一边使用数字化工具变革核心，一边开发并抓住数字化带来的新机遇。上文提到的公司，都在商业模式中融入了不同的数字化元素，其中一些并没有颠覆性或侵入性。成功关键在于关注客户需求，保持机构灵活，尊重渐进式变革，并且懂得企业不仅要通过收购创业公司获取新技术和新技能，还要保护这些公司——在这些方面，很多最优秀的传统企业一直表现出色。

For most companies, even those truly threatened by disruption, digital transformation is not usually about a root-and-branch reimagining of the value proposition or the business model. Rather, it is about both transforming the core using digital tools and discovering and capturing new opportunities enabled by digital. Each company we have described has incorporated different digital elements in its business model, and not all the changes were disruptive or intrusive. The keys to success have been a focus on customer needs, organizational flexibility, respect for incremental change, and awareness that new skills and technology must be not only acquired but also protected—something the best traditional companies have always been good at.

南森·弗尔（Nathan Furr） 安德鲁·希皮洛夫（Andrew Shipilov）｜文

南森·弗尔是欧洲工商管理学院战略学助理教授。安德鲁·希皮洛夫是欧洲工商管理学院国际管理学JohnH.Loudon教席教授