The Importance Of Digitalization Strategy

In business, a strategy will set the direction in which the business will follow for a certain amount of time to achieve its goals. The goal can be to set a strategy that will create an advantage among the competition. Vu (2007) believes that it is managerial structure that drives strategic objectives. Top managers of a company set a broad based plan and the managers of each division or department set more specific plans to fulfill the overarching company goals Before the digital decade, the information technology (IT) departments of businesses were just another division of a company. Prior to 1980s businesses would use technology sparingly and it was never thought to be integral to business proceedings. Bharadwaj, El Sawy, Pavlou, and Venkatraman

Therefore, the business digitalization strategy is no longer a sub-division plan of an IT department; it is a key component strategy to ensure company’s success.

3.1 Background Statement

In large corporations top managers cannot be involved in every gritty detail of a business proposal or idea, so they can review proposals at final stages. This process wasted time, money, and manpower on ideas that could be nixed or completely restructured at their final stages. This led to the evolution of top managers working with subordinates on business strategy and planning before an idea got too far off the ground. Doing so prevented a company’s resources from being wasted on an idea that would never come to fruition. And with the advancements of technology, digitalization was weaved into the early strategic planning process as well.

Digital business strategy has evolved in its own right. Starting of as part of every department, it has become the core of business strategy when it comes to planning for the future. Every proposal is now assessed and matched with the positive or negatives effects of

Even more so, technology and digital business strategy affect every aspect of a company in some way or another. Currently group video conferences are just as common as group phone calls previously made. Each department uses the digital strategy that management implanted in order to increase efficiency and centralize operations. Traditionally companies used digitalization through an IT department that would fix phones, computers, fax machines, and other technological mishaps in the company. Overtime, the IT departments progressed into “make or break” units for a company’s success. Top level management strategizes with the IT specialists daily, in some cases IT being the driving force behind the strategy. The reason business strategies transition into digital business strategy is worthy of investigation is because of the importance a business strategy carries in and of itself. For most plans to succeed they need a strategy which they will use to reach the end goal. Top management of company has a broad goal or vision for the company. The top vision is then followed by creating a strategy for the sub-level of management to reach their specific goals. When put together, each division goals correspond with the broad based vision of top level management. Without the hierarchical structure of a business strategy, there would be an uncoordinated flow of effort and an