Digital 2.0 Episode 4: Alex Chimon, Digital Technology Leader

“Digital transformation is evolution.” When I asked Alex what he’s learned in nearly three decades of helping companies digitally transform, that was the first thing he said.

The word “transformation” might have been applicable 20 years ago when print companies turned off the presses and went digital. But that’s not what’s happening anymore.

Any company in existence has digitized. Now they’re trying to evolve with mixed success. For some, evolutionary growth becomes stunted because the organization lacks a clear and cohesive purpose.

Organizations shouldn’t ask, “How am I building technology?” says Alex. Instead, they need to figure out why they need to change their business. That means assessing customer engagement, gathering data, and making strategic decisions based on it.

Just as important, it means setting goals and aligning strategy across the organization. If organizations need technology to accomplish their goals, that’s fine with Alex. The trouble is that organizations are building technology without knowing if they need it.

First, “you need to make sure you have a clear message: this is where we’re trying to go; this is why we need to get there; this is how we’re going to do it,” says Alex. Without that, failure is inevitable.

“I’ve seen it happen where leadership declares it’s time to ‘go digital.’ Everyone below is, like, ‘aren’t we already digital?’” It’s up to leadership to clarify what “going digital” means.

Otherwise, you’re going to create a mess of confusion.

After reading Alex’s article, I figured I knew where Alex stood on organizational innovation, transformation, and modernization, but I asked anyway. I’m glad I did because his answer was insightful.

To innovate, transform, and modernize might mean building new technology. But organizations who get it right don’t abandon what’s right in front of them.

“Innovation isn’t about reinventing the wheel,” says Alex. “Take Uber, for example. They didn’t build new technology; they didn’t have to.” Instead, they simply grabbed onto existing technology and used it in a new way.

That technology might not have been new and flashy, but it was good enough to help Uber chart a net worth of $45.85B in May.

For Alex, being innovative is a two-part exercise. The first is taking the tools you already have and maximizing their efficiency. “If you’ve exhausted the limits of that technology,” says Alex, well, “perhaps it’s time to build something new.” Until then, use what you have.

That’s innovative.

To further illustrate, Alex uses a few examples—mRNA vaccines being one of them. mRNA vaccines have been around for decades, yet before COVID, most people had never heard of them.

The vaccines are fascinating because they teach cells how to make proteins that trigger an immune response inside the human body. When the pandemic hit, researchers speculated that this decades-old technology might potentially work on COVID-19.

So they started testing. And sure enough, it worked.

Alex’s point is that mRNA researchers didn’t start from scratch or build something new. Instead, they looked at what they already had, tested it, refined it, and put it into play. There’s a good lesson there.