David Rogers is the world’s leading expert on digital transformation, a member of the faculty at Columbia Business School, and the author of five books.
His landmark bestseller, The Digital Transformation Playbook, was the first book on digital transformation and put the topic on the map. Rogers defined the discipline by arguing that digital transformation (DX) is not about technology; it is about strategy, leadership, and new ways of thinking. In his newest book, The Digital Transformation Roadmap, Rogers tackles the biggest barriers to DX success and offers a blueprint to rebuild any organization for continuous digital change.
The Digital Transformation Roadmap:
Rebuild Your Organization
for Continuous Change
by David Rogers
(Columbia Business School Publishing, 2023)
Today, every business is talking about digital transformation. With the acceleration of new technologies, every organization knows it must adapt to survive. But by their own admission, 70 percent of businesses are failing to transform. Across industries, established companies are held back by bureaucracy, inertia, and old ways of working. How can businesses break through to drive real change?
The Digital Transformation Roadmap provides every leader with the answer. Acclaimed author and C-suite advisor David L. Rogers argues that businesses must transform not just products and business models—they must transform the organization itself.
Based on two decades of research and advising companies around the world, Rogers identifies the five biggest barriers to digital transformation: vision, priorities, experimentation, governance, and capabilities. He then shows how any business can evolve by heeding the lessons of companies such as Disney, Walmart, Mastercard, Air Liquide, and the New York Times Company.
The Digital Transformation Playbook:
Rethink Your Business for the Digital Age
by David Rogers
(Columbia Business School Publishing, 2016)
Every business begun before the Internet now faces the same challenge: How to transform to compete in a digital economy?
Globally recognized digital expert David Rogers argues that digital transformation is not about updating your technology but about upgrading your strategic thinking. Based on Rogers’s decade of research and teaching at Columbia Business School, and his consulting for businesses around the world, The Digital Transformation Playbook shows how pre-digital-era companies can reinvigorate their game plans and capture the new opportunities of the digital world.
Rogers shows why traditional businesses need to rethink their underlying assumptions in five domains of strategy―customers, competition, data, innovation, and value. He reveals how to harness customer networks, platforms, big data, rapid experimentation, and disruptive business models―and how to integrate these into your existing business and organization.
[Research]
What Is the Future of Data Sharing? Consumer Mindsets & the Power of Brands
(co-authored with Matthew Quint)
This global research study explored how business can make data sharing a “win-win” for both companies and the customers they serve. We surveyed attitudes towards sharing data with business in six different industries, talking with 8,000 consumers from the US, UK, Canada, France, and India. The research examined:
- How consumers think about specific types of personal data (e.g. sharing their name vs. their purchase history)
- How they share data with different industries (e.g. retail vs. telecommunications companies)
- How a trusted relationship with a brand might impact a person’s decision to share data
- How traditional offers along with new, data-enabled benefits might affect sharing decisions
Our surprising findings show that even consumers who are actively protective of their data are often happy to share it for relevant offers and value. The study revealed four distinct “mindsets” that consumers have towards sharing data. And we uncovered clear opportunities for business to use data to add more value to their relationships with consumers.
The Network Is Your Customer:
Five Strategies to Thrive in a Digital Age
by David Rogers
(Yale University Press, 2011)
In his 3rd book, marketing expert David Rogers examines how digital technologies—from smartphones to social networks—connect us in networks that transform our relationships to businesses and each other. To thrive today, organizations need new strategies—strategies designed for customer networks.
Rogers offers five strategies that any business can use to create new value:
- ACCESS—be faster, be easier, be everywhere, be always on
- ENGAGE—become a source of valued content
- CUSTOMIZE—make your offering adaptable to your customers’ needs
- CONNECT—become a part of your customers’ conversations
- COLLABORATE—involve your customers at every stage of your enterprise
Rogers explains these five strategies with over 100 cases from every type and size of business–from shoes to news, and software to healthcare. The book presents a framework for planning and implementing a customer network strategy to match your customers, your business, and your objectives — whether you need to drive sales, to enhance innovation, to reduce costs, to gain customer insight, or to build breakthrough products and services.
[Research]
Showrooming and the Rise of the Mobile-Assisted Shopper
(co-authored with Matthew Quint and Rick Ferguson)
This international study examines the impact of smartphones on shopper behavior in retail stores. As brick-and mortar stores continue to struggle with the rise of “showrooming” consumers – those visiting a store to see a product, but purchasing it later online – our research reveals concrete steps that retailers can take to entice consumers armed with mobile devices to make purchases inside their store walls.
We were able to survey the behaviors and motivations of 3,000 leading-edge consumers in 3 countries, who represent the “omni-channel” future of retail. Our findings contradict many of the common assumptions about the threat of “showrooming”, and reveal five distinct segments of mobile-assisted shoppers. We also identify clear opportunities for retailers to engage and retain these tech-savvy customers.
[Research]
Marketing ROI in the Era of Big Data
(co-authored with Don Sexton)
This study examined the changing practices of large corporations in their usage of “big data”, marketing measurement and ROI, and the integration of digital and traditional marketing.
The study’s results focus on 3 main findings:
- The failures to capitalize on “Big Data” for marketing
- Marketers are quick to adopt the newest digital tools, but struggle to measure them
- After detailed analysis, the report concludes with five key leadership recommendations for Chief Marketing Officers.
The Handbook on Brand and Experience Management
(co-edited with Bernd Schmitt)
(Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)
This book explores emerging research and new directions in practice around the concepts of brand equity, brand associations, brand personality, brand extensions, and brand valuation.
The book includes:
- the latest academic research offering new frameworks for understanding brand management
- current tools in practice by brand managers today, linking theory and practice
- new conceptual frameworks for understanding and managing customer experiences
- empirical research and measurement in both brand and experience management
- articles by practitioners focusing on practical, managerial, and organizational best practices
[Case Study]
SAP: Building a Leading Technology Brand
(co-authored with Bernd Schmitt)
Hasso Plattner, co-CEO of software firm SAP AG, has hired Martin Homlish to develop a strong brand image for the firm, a B2B company whose culture has always focused more on product engineering than on marketing.
This case examines Homlish’s efforts to transform marketing worldwide and spearhead a strategic branding initiative. Homlish’s challenges were to align the organization and communicate the brand consistently, as well as to build a brand strong and flexible enough to continually support changing business objectives. Homlish established SAP Global Marketing, based in New York City, and launched a comprehensive effort to build a powerful global brand. This effort produced impressive results for SAP. According to BusinessWeek’s annual brand rankings, the value of the brand rose $2.86 billion, or 46 percent, between 2000 and 2005, making SAP the only software company to gain brand value for those five years in a row.
The complete case study is available for download here: Part A | Part B.
There’s No Business That’s Not Show Business:
Marketing in an Experience Culture
(co-authored with Bernd Schmitt and Karen Vrotsos)
(FT Press, 2003)
The authors lift the curtain on how successful brands like BMW, Intel, and Victoria’s Secret win over customers in an experience-driven culture. The book shows managers how an experiential marketing strategy can be taken to implementation in a range of media.
In today’s “show business,” experiential marketing has moved beyond the world of advertising to include staged events, experiential retail space, street theater, and squads of customer evangelists. Experiential marketers use “show business” to generate buzz, launch products, grow brands, and build great customer relationships.
