As a manager in any organization, of any industry anywhere, you've known for a while that your company's strategy and vision had better include technology. If it doesn't, your enterprise will wind up as roadkill on the information superhighway.
Now here's a book to help you fully understand how leading organizations are shaping strategy, "driving digital" throughout the enterprise, and selling this new way of thinking to executives and managers who just don't get it.
Robert McDowell's Driving Digital combines the experience and candor of a Microsoft Corporation vice president to show why technology is no longer just a tool. He shows how it can become a driving force in today's workplace -- an essential core of any business plan -- and shares the secrets of how to make it happen in your company.
In his ten years at Microsoft, McDowell has seen successful companies combine business strategy with technology. In Driving Digital, he offers an insider view of the pitfalls and payoffs of the IT revolution in the workplace. You'll learn from stories shared by McDowell and other leaders across the spectrum of business and around the world. For example:
President Miguel Angel Rodriguez Echeverria of Costa Rica, who learned to use e-mail on live, national television to lead his country into the electronic age by example
David Jones, group chief information officer at Scottish Power, who brought this 24,000-employee, £6.5 billion company together on one information highway
Jim Hebe, the CEO of Freightliner Trucks, who used technology to drive his business further, faster, and better than the competition
Ed McDonald, who as chief of technology at Texaco whittled the company's 13 different e-mail systems down to one, giving every employee access to everyone else.
McDowell also takes you behind the scenes at Microsoft, sharing what he has learned from Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer about using technology to think strategically.
Driving Digital speaks frankly and clearly about how managers and leaders need to get wired -- and why you should be doing that riqht now. Sure, it can be daunting, McDowell admits, to rethink an entire operations system, communications devices, and even business goals. But, he warns, this is where business is going, and the success of any company depends on its ability to plug into the information age.
For managers and leaders, Driving Digital is a fast ride toward a successful destination.
