Managing Digital Transformation: Understanding the Strategic Process

In this review of Managing Digital Transformation: Understanding the Strategic Process, the authors present a rigorous, practice-focused guide for executives and academics seeking a clear route to implement digital change. The book's single biggest reason to buy is its blend of cutting-edge academic research with real-world interviews and roadmaps from leaders at Bulgari, Deutsche Bahn, Henkel, Lanxess, L'Oreal, Unilever and Thales that make strategy actionable rather than theoretical. This review highlights how the book helps readers plan, build capabilities and overcome resistance during transformation.

Key Features

• Practical roadmaps: Provides structured steps and lessons learnt for planning and implementing digital transformation programs in established organizations.
• Executive interviews: Includes candid interviews with chief executive officers and chief digital officers from leading firms that reveal strategic priorities and real implementation challenges.
• SME focus: Presents research and case studies specifically on the digitalization of small and medium-sized companies to broaden relevance beyond large corporations.
• Theoretical foundation: Summarizes cutting-edge academic research on business models and organizational capabilities to explain why certain approaches drive performance.
• Change management tools: Offers insights and practical tools for overcoming internal resistance and aligning teams and incentives during transformation.

Who It's For

This book is best for practising executives, digital leaders and strategy consultants who need a framework that links academic insight to operational steps; the interviews make it particularly valuable for C-suite readers wanting peers' perspectives. The mix of cases and tools also suits academics and MBA students who require up-to-date research plus applied examples.

Readers looking for a short primer or a purely technical how-to manual for specific software implementations should look elsewhere, since the focus is strategic planning, organizational capability and performance implications rather than step-by-step IT instructions.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Combines scholarly research with practitioner interviews to bridge theory and practice.
• Covers both large corporates and small and medium-sized enterprises, widening applicability.
• Provides concrete tools and advice for managing internal resistance and building digital capabilities.

Cons

• Does not focus on technical implementation details or specific software tools, so it may feel high level to IT specialists.

Specifications

Title	Managing Digital Transformation: Understanding the Strategic Process
Authors	Andreas Hinterhuber, Tiziano Vescovi, Francesca Checchinato
Audience	Practising executives, academics, strategy professionals
Includes	Interviews with CEOs and CDOs from leading companies
Case studies	Large firms and small and medium-sized companies
Focus areas	Business models, organizational capabilities, performance implications

Our Verdict

Managing Digital Transformation is a strong, strategy-first resource for leaders who must design and lead digital change. Its combination of interviews, case studies and academic grounding makes it good value for executives and educators seeking actionable frameworks and change-management tools rather than technical how-to guides.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this book include real company examples?
Yes; it features interviews and case studies from companies including Bulgari, Deutsche Bahn, Henkel, Lanxess, L'Oreal, Unilever and Thales.

Is it suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises?
Yes; the book explicitly contains research and case studies on the digitalization of small and medium-sized companies.

Will it teach specific software or technical implementation?
No; the emphasis is on strategic planning, organizational capabilities and overcoming resistance rather than step-by-step software instructions.