Over the last decade or so, there are few words used more regularly and more vaguely to mean more things across the business World as “Digital”.
It means everything and nothing, has justified enormous programs of work and changed the shape and behaviour of organisations of all sizes.
You can add it to pretty much any other word to make it sound exciting, modern and sexy — “not just any thingy, this is a digital thingy”…
But what the devil does it actually mean?
I’ve (superficially) scoured the entire Internet looking for a clear and concise definition and cannot find one. They vary from multi-page theoretical ramblings about customer-centric, capability enhancing, value-add activity to simple but inherently recursive one-liners such as “The use of digital technology to enable a digital business”…which just ties my head up in knots as I work my way unsuccessfully through it….It’s turtles all the way down!
So I gave myself a challenge, could I come up with a simple(ish) definition of what it means. A relatively clear sentence of about 10 words which could be reasonably applied to most uses. This should be easy, I’ve got “Digital” in my job title…surely I know what I do for a living?
Apparently, I do not….
