DLA Piper publishes Embracing Digital Evolution report

The majority (57%) of attendees at launch event believe company culture is the most important internal factor in digital evolution, with only 10% believing it to be tech capability.

DLA Piper has published a comprehensive global report on what it takes for businesses to prosper in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Titled Embracing Digital Evolution, the report comprises insights from digital revolutionaries around the world, including Microsoft, Rolls-Royce, DocuSign, Salesforce and Hedera Hashgraph. It also has insights from Lord Tim Clement-Jones CBE and our partners at DLA Piper, including Simon Levine and Paul Allen.

The macro factor with the broadest, longest-term influence on strategic decision-making is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0. With new and emerging technologies redefining what’s possible, businesses must continuously evolve digitally to succeed. The report covers four key subject areas: the drivers of digital evolution, how to create a digitally evolved business, the landscape of digital evolution, and the features of digital evolution.

Results from a poll of DLA Piper clients and contacts who attended the report launch showed over half of their customers (54%) had significantly changed their digital expectations of the products or services provided over the past two years. When asked how well these expectations had been met, over half (54%) felt they were only able to moderately satisfy customers, with a further 23% just performing adequately.

This shows there is clear room for improvement and the potential to reap the rewards for companies that follow the report’s guidance. When asked what the most important internal factor was for effectively evolving digitally, the majority (57%) believed it was a company’s culture, with only 5% believing it to be organisational structure, and 10% seeing it as technological capability.

The report also sets out DLA Piper’s seven principles for digital evolution, covered in greater detail in the report:

1. Embrace your evolution
2. Digital evolution is more than just technology
3. Have a purpose and a positive culture 
4. Be customer-obsessed 
5. Partner where you can 
6. Lead through innovation 
7. Technology problems are people problems

Paul Allen, Global Co-Chair of Intellectual Property & Technology at DLA Piper, said:

“We live in a world of constant change where products and services continually develop and customer demands change at pace. Embracing digital evolution is an essential strategy, but it is by no means easy. Change is the new constant and organisations must keep up. This report sets out, from a business perspective, not a legal one, what companies need to know to survive and prosper in this hugely dynamic environment”.