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Also available in Portuguese: Mensurando impacto: Sustentabilidade empresarial 2.0.

Given all the attention that “digital” is getting at the moment, you would be forgiven for thinking that it is somehow new. In fact, the relentless drive to embrace digital technologies has been ongoing for many decades. What also seems to have been forgotten are the lessons from these earlier attempts to leverage IT (remember that IT is a digital technology). Unfortunately, the history of IT investments in most organizations is far from stellar: Research over the years suggests that the overall failure rate of IT projects is around 70%. We know that when IT projects fail, it is usually not because the technology didn’t work (although this can sometimes be the case), but because the changes required at an organizational and employee level weren’t managed effectively. Quite simply, adding technology does not automatically confer expected benefits; these benefits have to be unlocked and this can only happen through achieving organizational changes.

CSR activities such as charitable giving, environmental programs and ethical practices can motivate frontline employees. One of the key variables is organizational identification. CSR communicates values, and, if these values are consistent with a person’s own value system, it results in higher identification with the company. Employees who notice that consumers are fond of the company’s CSR activities will identify even more with the company. If CSR ranks high in their own personal value system and the value system of the consumer as well, they find common ground for conversations beyond immediate business talk. CSR can be an icebreaker in conversations with customers. Once service employees find out that customers share their passion for social or environmental causes, it creates a bond that is highly motivating. They become more confident that they know what the customers want. They are more motivated to serve those customers when they see that both of them care about the same sorts of things.

Over the last 10 years, a basic shift has occurred from an IT-deployment view of the world of big systems and even bigger projects toward a people-centric and user-oriented view of hardware, information, and human collaboration and networking. Consumers have adapted rather quickly to this shift: If it is not useful, delete the app, the data, and the humans we choose not to network with. While consumers are free to pick and choose the technology they will buy, the information they will access, and the degree to which they will network and with whom, managers and employees within companies are more constrained by the processes, structures, functions, systems, and technology the company invests in and deploys over time. So we have a fundamental dilemma: How must leaders align and transform their legacy business to take full advantage how people, information, and IT capabilities can interact in a rapidly changing, digital world?