DB-09: Top 8 capabilities you need to be a Digital Business

In our Digital Business (DB) series journey so far, we

• Examined what it takes to be a digital business.

• Clarified whether being a Digital Business is for you.

• Put digital landscapes into perspective by looking at how businesses use applications to create advantage.

• Mapped out the journey you need to navigate to become a Digital Business.

• Discussed the implications of changing the business while running the business.

• Explored the Digital Business mindset, helping you identify whether you already have the necessary internal skills or can benefit from outside help.

• Identified the top 5 key traits Digital Leadership should have.

• Explored what being an agile Digital Business means and enables

In this final part of the series, we bring it all together and explore the top 8 capabilities you need to be a Digital Business.

Our post on whether being a Digital Business is for you we discussed how "poster Digital Business brands" put digital and software at their core to disrupt their target industries. These included Uber (taxi & deliveries), Tesla (cars), Amazon (books & retail), Bloomberg (news & fintech), Revolut (payments & banking).

With the cloud, big data, analytics, intelligence, creation of storefronts and the ongoing improvement to customer experiences, Traditional Leaders are starting to operate closer to how a Digital Leader would.

However, there is so much more they need to adapt to that we believe it weakens their value. Their ability to build Digital Leadership skills comes at the cost of developing their domain expertise and business building skills, which the business still needs.

In your business, you will need to augment domain Traditional Leaders capabilities with Digital Leaders capabilities to effectively manage and become a Digital Business that can meet the following eight key areas of success:

​Capability	Description	Examples
​Digital Product/Service	The ability to create and ship a digital object or access a digital capability that delivers value to a person or process.	Tesla: The software system powering the dashboards through which users access Tesla services and extended car capabilities. The UI and gadgets positions and shapes are adapted based on new customer feedback with minimal turnaround time and impact. New capabilities are made available with minimal physical updates to the car itself Amazon: Kindle digital book
​Continuous updates	The ability for the Digital Product/Service to consistently receive maintenance updates. This ensures the continued delivery of agreed levels of service and value throughout engagement without needing manual intervention or the need to bring it in for service.	Tesla: The ability for the software to receive updates while the car is parked in your garage. Google: The ability to get access to new features without needing to do anything on your side.
Self Help by Design	Enabling customers to access systems of knowledge for help and training on their own time and pace	Apple: Hybrid approach through online support and Genius bar support. Reducing support costs via automation, digital chat and AI.
Digital Payment	Ability to transact to allow the customer to access value desired near-instantly	Amazon: Access to a Kindle eBook Tesla: Feature/removing of a capability block Microsoft: Centralised license purchase and instant assignment for their digital products
​Advanced Analytics around engagement and feature take rates	Web traffic and ability to map digital customer journeys from the moment of contact to the moment of product acquisition and usage. Customer Demographics	Tesla: Which car features and drive modes are used and in which volumes? Tesla: Connected car ecosystem Tesla: What is the average drive distance, and at what speed? Apple: How many people updated to the latest version of the operating system? Bloomberg: Which articles are being read most?
Digital products as a driver of innovation	Providing new digital products that capture behaviour and usage telemetry. Replacing an existing spreadsheet sold offline and re-packaging it with an online SaaS experience (e.g. using MS Power Apps) A digital training course	Creating petabytes of useful data that can be used to gain insights, identify new customer cohorts, identify product ideas and new potential markets to expand into
Do once repeat many approaches	Map out existing processes and workflows Identify new ways of working that shorten the time to achieve the desired outcome, or do it at a fraction of the cost while meeting the desired result. Leverage technology to drive the workflow, capture information and measure progress	Codifying systems of work and playbooks that enable new team members to achieve predictable results and similar outcomes to established team members.
Digital Finance	Ability to capture costs and revenue on a product-line, department and family basis Correlating revenue to costs to usage	Use data to identify when a customer is disengaging Recommend products & offerings customised to that person's behaviour and transactions

In Conclusion

This brings us to the end of this series.

Thank you for your time in reading our series of posts on becoming a Digital Business. This is a topic we love to explore, and look forward to hearing your feedback.

Explore the rest of the “Digital Business” series:

Post	Topic of Focus	Link
DB-01	Unpack what it takes to be a Digital Business	Link
BD-02	Is being a Digital Business for you?	Link
DB-03	Putting digital landscapes into perspective	Link
DB-04	Set your Digital Business north star	Link
DB-05	Changing the business while running the business	Link
DB-06	Understanding the Digital Business Mindset	Link
DB-07	Top 5 Key traits Digital Leadership should have	Link
DB-08	Unlocking Digital Business Agility	Link
DB-09	Top 8 capabilities you need to be a Digital Business	Link

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for companies to learn how to become a Digital Business.

It is only in uniting people, product & processes through a common vision, a deeply felt purpose, and a broadly shared dream that will continue to motivate stakeholders to push on ane persevere.

Many paths can lead to your desired destination. Each route has varying degrees of complexity, sophistication and completeness. Our purpose is to share with you our lessons learned in building global software businesses to help you achieve a Digital Business with assets people want to buy.

Let us know what you think on this series, and whether you feel we left something important out. Reach out on Let's Talk or by email to [email protected].