In order to reach a level of digital business that fits your organization, you need to come up with principles and goals that get you there.  These principles and goals can act as tie-breakers in the heat of battle.

What will affect your principles will be whether you believe that you are just a business that leverages digital or whether you are a true digital business.  Your organization's strategy could be aimed at diagnosing and eliminating near-term challenges, leveraging digital technologies with a 'bolt on' approach while progressing to becoming a digital business that reflects all of the business goals and principles. 

That being said, I have identified a good starting list for business principles and technical principles to use as a jump-start list to add to or delete from.  These principles might not work as presented for a highly-regulated organization, but they can be leveraged and adapted.

Business Principles

• Attract and Spoil Customers — start and finish outside in eliminating internal silos


• Build with Inclusion and Organize for Change — agility is better than perfection


• Create Operational Excellence — technology eliminates complexity and reduces cost


• Encourage and Reward Innovation — products, services, processes/apps can grow stale


• Outcomes Ahead of Processes — goal-driven processes/apps and smart actions


• Make 'Visibility to All' a Priority — not just for governance but for results analysis


• Speed Wins over Perfection — evolution works and tech is fast

Technical Principles

• Collaborate with the Business First — represents the customer and constituents


• Experimentation is Essential for Innovation — time and legality are the guard-rails


• Composition First Instead of Creation — somebody has already done it


• Agile Development is First Prize — methods and practices encourage iteration


• Scalability and Security Designed Early — explosive growth breaks and attracts


• Design for Sustainability — pillage mentality is dying


• Design with Autonomy in Mind — central control relaxes with goals and constraints

Net; Net

While these principles, and fleshing out the goals that cascade from these principles, may not fit your organization exactly, these should give you a jump-start.  It is important for you to define 'digital' for your own organization so you might refer to how I define what it is to be a 'digital business'.

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