Digitalization is the biggest disruption for business-as-usual at any major corporation. Trusted mindsets and existing business models are collapsing, corporations are struggling to react to the Fourth Industrial Revolution by risking too little and transforming too slowly.
“It’s time to wake up, act and really shape digital change. We need to take up responsibility for digitalization,” says corporate venture builder and tech entrepreneur Felix Staeritz, one of the the principal authors of Fightback: How to Win in the Digital Economy with Platforms, Ventures and Entrepreneurs.
Fightback has already received praise from policy and business thought-leaders, such as Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman: “Fightback showcases how to embrace digitalization and how to overcome disruption.” And Gisbert Ruehl CEO of Kloeckner & Co., says that the book is a “must-read for everyone working in a traditional industry.”
A serial entrepreneur, digital growth expert and founder of several startups and platforms, Felix Staeritz is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Digital Leaders board and CEO of FoundersLane, a corporate venture builder. Co-author Simon Torrance, one of the world’s leading experts on business model transformation specializing in platform strategy and digital ventures, and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s executive working group on Digital Platforms and Ecosystems. The foreword was written by Martina Larkin, the Head of Regional Strategies – Europe and Eurasia at the World Economic Forum.
Fightback delivers a fresh perspective and a convincing blueprint that will enable business leaders to use the digital economy to their advantage by leveraging three powerful, but little understood, strategic tools: platform business models, digital ventures and the special skills of tech entrepreneurs. Based on a sophisticated analysis, the book is a hands-on playbook for corporate renewal in an age of digitalization and makes a convincing case for Europe leading the way in changing minds and business around the world.
The book will be launched this Thursday, January 23rd, during the 2020 World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting week and its headline topic “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World,” which touches on the very issues discussed in the book including helping businesses create the essential models in order to remain competitive as the Fourth Industrial Revolution unfolds. This in a world driven by exponential technological change, as well as increasing expectations from stakeholders, on all sides.
As for digitalization, the book claims, the tipping point has already occurred, but the authors make the case for reasons to be cheerful. It’s easy to get it wrong, as it’s not enough to simply digitize existing operational processes, as outdated trading practices are failing to have an impact, yet established corporations remain hesitant to embrace change and challenge this deep-rooted inertia. The “magic of the platform,” as the authors call it, is at the core of this radically new approach, resulting in entrepreneurial co-creation. Last but not least, the authors explain how to create a framework for change in a company and present five hands-on steps on how to renew.
Fightback brings together a unique set of dynamic entrepreneurs, hands-on practitioners with consulting experience with leading companies, CEOs of top global corporations, and some of the world’s top digital thought-leaders, as well as scholars of various areas of expertise. ◊
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