Have you ever started a journey without knowing the destination?

You will feel lost, may incur more than what you planned, you may reach your destination after everybody else. The same will be if you get started on a digital transformation journey without defining what you want to achieve. In today's information age, most businesses set the goals to transition into a digital business existence. 

How can you travel in the digital transformation path without first knowing what a digital business is?
Here we lay out for you what a digital business is and what it takes to evolve into a disruptive digital business.

Let's get started. 

What is a digital business? 

In simple terms – It is a use of technology to create or add value to business models, internal processes, customer experiences, and capabilities that support the core operations. 

Let's break this down further for your better clarity. 

It is –

• Driving business outcomes, handling business needs, and managing organizational change with digital technology.
• Striving to achieve digital operational excellence, which in turn drives efficiency and agility needed to survive and even thrive in the digital marketplace.
• Replacing the legacy systems and processes in business functions with digital alternatives.

Digitizing a business cannot happen overnight. It may opt to go about the transformation function by function or process by process. Regardless of the approach, Digital business is often disruptive. It is right that Digital Businesses do lead to the convergence of people, business, and elements or factors that disrupt the existing system & model. 

For example, let's consider 'Newspapers' from the time of its advent to now and underscore digital technology's impact on driving efficiency and improving customer experience.

 The legacy approach for reaching newspapers to the subscribers' doorstep was printing and distribution. The newspapers' quality that readers held in their hands depended on the quality of paper or print and the delivery timeliness. Even a slight change in one of these two factors would change the experience of the customer. 

Now, let's add the disruption causing digital technology to the mix.

Printing is no longer in the flow of production. Instead, replaced by graphics and typography of the e-newspaper. The physical circulation is replaced by online publishing, allowing the readers access to the e-newspaper on a computer screen or hand-held devices. The disruption via digital technology eliminated the printing and distribution function and enhanced the end-user experience by allowing convenient access and no-hassle carrying.

To infer from the example cited above, Digital Business (e-newspaper) eliminated the legacy practice of printing and distribution, enhancing the end-user experience in several ways.

Note: You can call a Digital Business disruptive only if it changes the way you operate. If not, it does not qualify to be called disruptive.

Digital businesses blur the lines between the physical and digital worlds, sometimes causing a rippling wave of disruption and sometimes not.