Acknowledgments

I have always been fascinated by technology. The dawn of the internet era, in the 1990s, created a new sense of excitement for me as I saw its dramatic impact on consumers, firms, and society. A startup like Amazon was taking on the retailing giant Walmart, and eBay was reducing consumers’ transaction costs, which, according to Nobel Prize–winning economist Ronald Coase’s “theory of the firm,” are the reason why we work for a firm instead of being freelance workers. The birth of Google (1998), the emergence of Facebook (2004), and the launch of the iPhone (2007) further piqued my curiosity and led me to embark on a ten-year journey of research into digital technology and its impact on consumer behavior and firm strategy.

During this period I studied three groups of companies. The first group consisted of startups that were disrupting incumbents by inventing new business models and services. I had the privilege of talking with and learning from the founders of many amazing startups—Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss of Rent the Runway (who discussed their startup idea with me when they were my students at Harvard Business School), Will Dean of Tough Mudder (also an HBS student of mine), Steve Kaufer of TripAdvisor, Jason Kilar of Hulu, Chad Hurley of YouTube (one of its founders), Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm (a mobile-payment company in India), Mikael Hed of Rovio (of Angry Birds fame), Hyung-Chul Joo of Cyworld (a Korean social-network company), Oscar Farinetti of Eataly (an innovative Italian grocery chain), Sachin and Binny Bansal from Flipkart (an Indian online retailer like Amazon), Naveen Tewari of InMobi (a global mobile-advertising-network company), Ritesh Agarwal of OYO (an online marketplace for hotel rooms in India), and Guy Halfteck of Knack (a people-analytics company). Several other founders and VCs, many of them HBS alumni, were also very generous with their time, helping me understand the mindset of disruptors. Our California Research Center, under the direction of Allison M. Ciechanover and her excellent staff, and our India Research Center, under the direction of Anjali Raina and her superb staff, especially Rachna Tahilyani, were extremely helpful in organizing my numerous trips to meet with and learn from these entrepreneurs.

The second group of companies I studied consisted of “digital giants” like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google—companies that grew up with a digital DNA but are now large enough that they have to deal with established companies as well. For example, Facebook and Google have to understand the advertising goals and practices of P&G and Coke. I am indebted to several executives at these firms for their time and guidance. I am especially thankful to Shuvo Saha of Google for sharing Google’s view on digital marketing, and Eddy Cue and Jennifer Bailey of Apple for helping me understand the thinking behind launching Apple Pay.

The third group of companies in my research consisted of the incumbents—large, established firms that are being threatened by digital technology. I learned about the opportunities and challenges of digital transformation from the leaders of these companies. Ajay Banga showed me how he is leading Mastercard by creating a platform for digital innovation, and Raja Rajamannar explained the marketing transformation at the firm. David Kenny told me how he transformed The Weather Company, and how that experience is guiding him as he leads the Watson group at IBM. Hubert Joly highlighted how he is leading Best Buy even as it faces tremendous pressure from Amazon. From Kasper Rørsted I learned the challenges of digital transformation at Henkel and Adidas. Marty Chavez outlined the digital journey of Goldman Sachs. Shantanu Narayen described the amazing transformation of Adobe, which produced a sevenfold increase in the company’s stock price in five years. Ömer Aras described the creation of a digital bank as a separate entity from the parent Finansbank in Turkey.

As part of my research I interviewed dozens of other executives who were instrumental in shaping my thinking. I am especially grateful to our Europe Research Center, under the direction of Vincent Dessain and his skilled team, especially Daniela Beyersdorfer, Emilie Billaud, and Tonia Labruyere for arranging interviews with Dr. Josef Reiter and Michael Wuertenberger of BMW, Thomas Romieu of LVMH, Wilko Stark of Daimler Group, Patrice Bula of Nestlé, Paul Van Arkel of Novartis, Antonia McCahon of Pernod Ricard, Luis Di Como and Laura Misselbrook of Unilever, and Dr. Hans Langer of Electro Optical Systems. Esel Çekin and her team at our MENA Research Center were also helpful in connecting me with many executives in Turkey and the Middle East.

As I learned from these interviews and developed my ideas, my HBS colleagues were a great resource for helping me refine my thinking. My special thanks to Bharat Anand, Doug Chung, John Deighton, Anita Elberse, Vineet Kumar, Rajiv Lal, Henry McGee, Donald Ngwe, Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Kash Rangan, and Thales Teixeira. I also got valuable input from my other academic colleagues and coauthors, especially Don Lehmann, Carl Mela, Raghu Iyengar, Puneet Manchanda, Aurélie Lemmens, Clarence Lee, Joseph Davin, Pavel Kireyev, Michela Addis, Koen Pauwels, Leslie John, Misiek Piskorski, and Srinivas Reddy.

I have always learned a lot from my MBA and executive students. My sincere thanks to the more than one thousand participants of our General Management Program (GMP) with whom I shared my ideas for the last five years. I am also grateful to hundreds of executives who attended our one-week executive program on Driving Digital Strategy and who provided suggestions to improve the content of this book. Thanks are also owed to hundreds of our alumni and MBA students for their constructive feedback, especially Zach Clayton (MBA 2009) and Kristin Armstrong (MBA 2009), who helped me in the early years of my research in this area.

The real testing ground of my ideas centered on the companies that were going through the digital transformation. When my presentations based on the ideas in this book resonated with executives around the world, I was ready to write the book. I want to thank the people who provided me this opportunity. Søren Røssel, head of PwC’s executive education in Europe, gave me the forum to speak to hundreds of PwC executives in Norway and Finland. I want to thank Søren and his excellent team, especially Line Lüthje and Fie Gottschalck, for their support during these programs. Thanks also to Håvard Abrahamsen of PwC Norway and Mikko Nieminen of PwC Finland. I am grateful, in addition, to executives of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Adidas, Autotrader, Bertelsmann, CTO Forum, Franklin Templeton, Heineken, Henkel, IBM, Jyske Bank, KLP, LVMH Asia, Novartis, T-Mobile, Turkcell, and Unilever for giving me the opportunity to share my work.

A research journey that spans ten years requires the help of many people, and I have been fortunate to get the support of several superb research associates and administrative assistants. Sara Simonds was my first RA when I embarked on this journey, and coincidentally she was also my last RA as I finished this book. In between I had the excellent support of Kavita Shukla, Dharmishta Rood, and Margaret Rodriguez. This book would not have been possible without their tremendous enthusiasm and support. Heather McNeil, Steve Church, and Elise Clarkson have been amazing administrative assistants during these years.

I worked with an incredible team at Harvard Business Review Press whose help and guidance have been crucial for the completion of the book. Tim Sullivan guided me during the early phases of the book, and later Kevin Evers took over Tim’s role and gave me excellent suggestions for positioning and improving the book. Jon Zobenica spent enormous time to copyedit the manuscript. Allison Peter and Anne Starr were extremely helpful in a variety of ways, including copyediting, composition, and copyright permissions. Kenzie Travers worked hard to get endorsements for the book. My sincere thanks to the global sales and marketing team of HBR Press including Sally Ashworth, Julie Devoll, Lindsey Dietrich, Brian Galvin, Vinay Hebbar, Keith Pfeffer, Jon Shipley, and Felicia Sinusas for their ongoing effort in promoting the book.

Finally, my deepest gratitude is to my family—my parents for instilling in me a deep sense of curiosity; my wife, Kamal, for her love and support, which never waned, even when I was deeply engrossed in my research and neglected things at home; and my sons, Tarun and Kunal, for their love and affection, which inspire me every day.