Based on interviews with F. Warren McFarlan and with others who have worked with him, as well as Harvard Business School archive material, we chronicle his long career, highlighting the immense contribution he has made to bridging academic research and IT management practice. McFarlan is now retired, but his legacy will continue to inspire future generations of IT practitioners and academic IT researchers for many years to come.

Artificial intelligence invariably conjures up visions of self-driving vehicles, obliging personal assistants, and intelligent robots. But AI's effect on how companies operate is no less transformational than its impact on such products. The use of AI to enhance business operations, or enterprise cognitive computing (ECC), involves embedding algorithms into applications that support organizational processes. ECC applications can automate repetitive, formulaic tasks and, in doing so, deliver orders-of-magnitude improvements in the speed of information analysis and in the reliability and accuracy of outputs. Although business and technology leaders are optimistic about the value-creating potential of ECC, the rate of adoption is low, and benefits have proved elusive. Generating value from ECC applications is not easy - and that reality has caught many business leaders off guard. Often, companies that hope but fail to benefit from ECC have not developed the necessary organizational capabilities. To help address that problem, the authors undertook a program of research aimed at identifying the foundations of ECC competence. They found that companies need to develop five capabilities in order to splice the ECC gene into their organization's DNA: data science competence, business domain proficiency, enterprise architecture expertise, an operational IT backbone, and digital inquisitiveness. Organizations must then apply those capabilities to derive value from applications. Four practices in particular help them do that: Develop clear and realistic use cases, manage ECC application learning, cocreate throughout the application life cycle, and think "cognitive." These practices create the conditions for applications - and their underlying AI algorithms - to deliver on their promise.

Practical advice for redesigning ?big, old? companies for digital success, with examples from Amazon, BNY Mellon, LEGO, Philips, USAA, and many other global organizations.Most established companies have deployed such digital technologies as the cloud, mobile apps, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence. But few established companies are designed for digital. This book offers an essential guide for retooling organizations for digital success. In the digital economy, rapid pace of change in technology capabilities and customer desires means that business strategy must be fluid. As a result, the authors explain, business design has become a critical management responsibility. Effective business design enables a company to quickly pivot in response to new competitive threats and opportunities. Most leaders today, however, rely on organizational structure to implement strategy, unaware that structure inhibits, rather than enables, agility. In companies that are designed for digital, people, processes, data, and technology are synchronized to identify and deliver innovative customer solutions?and redefine strategy. Digital design, not strategy, is what separates winners from losers in the digital economy. Designed for Digital offers practical advice on digital transformation, with examples that include Amazon, BNY Mellon, DBS Bank, LEGO, Philips, Schneider Electric, USAA, and many other global organizations. Drawing on five years of research and in-depth case studies, the book is an essential guide for companies that want to disrupt rather than be disrupted in the new digital landscape.Five Building Blocks of Digital Business SuccessShared Customer InsightsOperational BackboneDigital PlatformAccountability FrameworkExternal Developer Platform

Practical advice for redesigning “big, old” companies for digital success, with examples from Amazon, BNY Mellon, LEGO, Philips, USAA, and many other global organizations. Most established companies have deployed such digital technologies as the cloud, mobile apps, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence. But few established companies are designed for digital. This book offers an essential guide for retooling organizations for digital success. In the digital economy, rapid pace of change in technology capabilities and customer desires means that business strategy must be fluid. As a result, the authors explain, business design has become a critical management responsibility. Effective business design enables a company to pivot quickly in response to new competitive threats and opportunities. Most leaders today, however, rely on organizational structure to implement strategy, unaware that structure inhibits, rather than enables, agility. In companies that are designed for digital, people, processes, data, and technology are synchronized to identify and deliver innovative customer solutions—and redefine strategy. Digital design, not strategy, is what separates winners from losers in the digital economy. Designed for Digital offers practical advice on digital transformation, with examples that include Amazon, BNY Mellon, DBS Bank, LEGO, Philips, Schneider Electric, USAA, and many other global organizations. Drawing on five years of research and in-depth case studies, the book is an essential guide for companies that want to disrupt rather than be disrupted in the new digital landscape. Five Building Blocks of Digital Business Success Shared Customer Insights Operational Backbone Digital Platform Accountability Framework External Developer Platform

In 2017, Philips' goal was to use innovation to improve the lives of three billion people a year by 2025. To achieve that, the company was shifting from selling medical products in a transactional manner to providing integrated healthcare solutions based on digital health technology. Based on our interviews with 23 executives at Philips, the case examines the two directions of the transformation required by this shift: externally, Philips worked on transforming how healthcare was conducted. Healthcare professionals would have to change the way they worked and reimbursement schemes needed to change to incentivize payers, providers, and patients in vastly different ways. Internally, Philips needed to redesign how its employees worked. The company componentized its business, introduced digital platforms, and co-created integrated solutions with the various stakeholders of the healthcare industry. In other words: Philips was transforming itself in order the reinvent healthcare in the digital age.

“Rapidez” es la palabra que mas asocian muchos ejecutivos con el impacto de las tecnologias digitales. Una sucesion constante de nuevas tecnologias digitales (redes sociales, moviles, recogida y analisis de datos, nube, Internet de las Cosas, inteligencia artificial, 'blockchain') esta llevandonos a niveles de conectividad, acceso a datos y automatizacion que en el pasado habrian sido inimaginables

Royal Philip's goal was to use innovation to improve the lives of three billion people a year by 2025. To reach that goal, the company was shifting from selling medical products in a transactional manner to providing integrated healthcare solutions based on digital health technology (HealthTech). This shift required a dual transformation. On one hand, the company needed to transform how healthcare was conducted. Healthcare professionals would have to change the way they worked and reimbursement schemes needed to change to incentivize payers, providers, and patients in vastly different ways. On the other hand, Philips needed to redesign how it worked internally. The company componentized its business, introduced digital platforms, and co-created solutions with the various stakeholders of the healthcare industry. In other words: Royal Philips was transforming itself in order to reinvent healthcare in the digital age.

THE PROBLEM: Companies create problems for customers and employees when product innovation goes unmanaged. Eventually, excessive operational complexity hurts the bottom line. THREE SOLUTIONS: Focus on product integration, not product proliferation. Make sure your product developers work closely with customerfacing and operational employees. And settle on a high-level purpose that can guide decision making.

Enterprise cognitive computing (ECC) applications are generating a great deal of excitement for organizations. However, they have yet to demonstrate a business impact on a large scale. An important reason for this is a failure to understand how such applications can contribute to a company's business objectives and the challenges associated with implementing them. In this article, the authors provide an overview of cognitive computing applications for the enterprise. In particular, they classify opportunities for developing ECC applications and describe challenges in implementing them. Their findings are based on a study of 51 ECC application initiatives across a broad range of industries in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Given the lack of systematic descriptions regarding what is possible from ECC, this article should be valuable to researchers and practitioners in unpacking the black box of cognitive computing.

The possession of rich amounts of data is hardly unique in today's world. Indeed, data itself is increasingly a commodity. But the ability to monetize data effectively—and not simply hoard it—can be a source of competitive advantage in the digital economy.

As leading technology companies embrace biometrics, artificial intelligence (AI), drones, and other exciting digital technologies, senior business executives at many other companies feel pressured to do the same. But if they are to maximize the value from investment in new technologies, business leaders first must make sure that their companies have a great digital strategy.

Elements of Successful Digital Transformation12 New digital technologies, particularly what we refer to as SMACIT3 (social, mobile, analytics, cloud and Internet of things [IoT]) technologies, present both game-changing opportunities and existential threats to big old companies. GE’s “industrial internet” and Philips’ digital platform for personalized healthcare information represent bets made by big old companies attempting to cash

La gran mayoria de empresas estan, actualmente, saturadas de datos. Descifrar como poder extraer beneficio real a toda esa avalancha de informacion puede hacer que nuestra organizacion destaque en el mercado