This book was awarded the 2019 Axiom Business Book Award - Business Technology, Bronze Medal.
Users of twenty-first century, digital-era technologies are "technology takers," accepting of and adjusting to whatever the market offers them. Similar to small firms that lack the market power to set prices and are economic "price takers," managers today are increasingly unable to customize the digital-era technologies their organizations use. Technology takers have little influence over the capabilities of the technologies they adopt; they cannot expect to improve on or customize for themselves the features of Facebook, Google, the iPhone, the blockchain, cloud-based enterprise resource planning systems, or other game-changing and often disintermediating technologies.
The inability to modify available information technologies is a shock to leaders and managers alike. Cloud-based technologies arrive with set processes developed by others, and users must learn new ways of working each time the technologies themselves evolve. But refusing to adopt and adapt to digital-era technologies is, increasingly, not an option. Change in the digital era is constant and behavior-transforming. Managers must respond to these changes, or they will get left behind by those who do. The constancy of change also means that organizations have to do more than launch typical, one-off change management or transformation projects to succeed.
To adopt efficiently and adapt effectively to behavior-changing technologies, astute leaders should employ change leadership techniques as a strategy for the digital era. This book offers technology takers a playbook to manage change, create value, and exploit the digital era's strategic opportunities. The book draws on research and recent case studies to explain what it means to be a technology taker. Organizations and their managers are offered change leadership plays, which emphasize the iterative nature of change management in the digital era. The book also describes how technology taking can create value through data stream analytics and be used strategically to respond proactively to the challenges of the digital era.
Industry Reviews
'Projects are dead; continuous change is here. Embrace change or be left behind. Everyone needs to understand all five technology-taker plays. Read this book now.' -- Tim R. Lister, Atlantic Systems Guild, United States and United Kingdom
'This captivating book helps us understand the importance of adopting and adapting to the digital-era. With engaging cases, the book shows what it means to be a twenty-first century change leader.' -- Pilar Jimenez Rius, Court of Auditors, Spain
'A great read to understand the technology marketplace, the rush to standardization, inflexibility, and how to "take" technologies more cost-effectively than you've ever acquired them before.' -- Stephen J. Andriole, Villanova School of Business, United States
'Transformations can occur by accident, rather than deliberately. Yet, there are successfully planned transformations. For those, public policy leaders will find this book highly useful.' -- Francesco Mancini, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore
'Change leadership is a cornerstone of the 2030 global development agenda. The book outlines strategic choices to help leaders leverage technology when implementing change.' -- Mads Svendsen, United Nations Lab for Organizational Change and Knowledge (UNLOCK)
'Refusing to adapt one's practices to digital era reality poses great risks to an organization's long-term development. A must-read for all involved with risk management.' -- Jorge Huntley, RAM Consulting, Chile
This guide for managers gives tips for change leadership and transformative leadership in the digital era. Drawing on recent research and case studies, the guide presents a 'playbook' of five frameworks for establishing and sustaining technology-driven organizational change, from creating a change management function, to establishing governance of technology adoption, advocating for continuous change, training staff, and evaluating managers' embrace of technology change. The authors bring backgrounds in political science and law as well as management consulting as they explain how to avoid failed technology experiments, let go of outdated technologies, and create value through data analysis and behavior change. -- Annotation (c)2018 * (protoview.com) *
'The Axiom Business Book Awards are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary business books and their creators, with the understanding that business people are a very well-read and informed segment of the population, eager to learn about great new books that will inspire and inform them, and help them improve their careers and businesses.' -- Axiom Business Book Awards
