When recently reading about that digital is less a thing and more a way of doing things, with value being created at new frontiers to fundamentally change how business is done, we could not stop ourselves from reflecting on our own digital business journeys to-date. Three items on our list that are the most challenging and rewarding, and form part of a good way of doing things, deserve special mention: (1) ethical leadership with courage and direction, (2) genuine collaboration with trust and purpose, and (3) determined action with continuous forward planning. This goes way beyond digital, though is not less important - and to our way of thinking is in the centre of the digital accretion disk. The origin and the final frontier?

In our last two posts we sought to summarise 2 of 3 critical success factors when it comes to digital business: business model generation and value proposition design, and experience. We now want to summarise the third success factor, being the first amongst equals - Culture. What are the right digital business ideas, customs and social behaviours? To us, the overarching idea is the accretive co-creation of value with digital. Supported with critical thinking, discovery, exploration, a responsible exchange (of value) and continuous improvement, this can be achieved by converging people and technology to transform or extend an organisation's business model, value proposition and experience to generate more customer value that (1) like water should give without taking nor contending; and (2) should be aligned with an organisation's vision, mission and values. A digital business model, value proposition and experience should prove more sustainable that way, with value being co-created with courage, inspiration and empowerment - and with both our minds and hearts converging to deliver better outcomes for people and communities.

Digital business and experience. When reflecting on the word 'experience' from a digital business perspective, we are thinking foremost of convergence to maximise value co-creation. Building on the Nespresso case study we referred to in my last post, Nespresso (and many other organisations) got both feet on the ground with a customer-centric synergistic convergence of physical and digital driving new business models - underpinned with human-centered design. It's also a convergence of art and science. Another good example is Barneys. And emerging direct-to-consumer digital retail business models are also gaining traction. For a good summary of the current state of play digital experience-wise, Actual Experience recently published their digital experience quality 2016 report. And looking further out, virtual reality and voice control will take our experience to the next level.

In our last post we wrote about three critical success factors to build the break-through digital businesses of tomorrow: (1) a robust business model, (2) raising the experience bar and (3) culture. How can we better co-create, sustain and continuously improve digital business models? One part of the answer is to learn from others. For example, Nespresso is offering their customers an App that, besides other features, enables and motivates them to order more Nespresso coffee capsules (as showcased by Gartner in this article). Many businesses have similar opportunities in this B2C or B2B high volumes and high margins Goldilocks zone. Another part of the answer is to approach the generation of business models and value propositions in a way that nurtures co-creation. A supporting framework and toolset that has gained in credence is the Business Model and Value Proposition Canvass developed by Osterwalder and Pigneur. And last but not least, a part of the answer should also be advocacy to transcend both short and long-termism (as expertly done in this Harvard Business Review article).

Every day there are more examples how traditional business models are being innovated with digital and technology like McDonald's, NYT and Ford. One challenge is lifting the bar human-to-machine interaction-wise to deliver more immersive and authentic digital experiences that are driving greater consumer accretion and conversion, underpinned - for example - with emerging conversational user interface technologies such as spearheaded by Capio. Appreciation that the digital businesses of tomorrow are a fusion of business model generation and value proposition design with technology - supercharged with inspiration, genuine collaboration and diversity of thinking and experience - is pivotal to co-create the break-through digital businesses of tomorrow.