The events of 2020 showed the criticality of digital transformation. Organizations that had fully embraced digital transformation benefits in preceding years were in position to make rapid adjustments, relying on their cloud architecture, modern security protocols, an agile company culture and their full range of business-enabling technologies to support vast new work-from-home environments, as well as newly virtualized business transactions and interactions. But companies, nonprofits and governmental entities lagging in their digital initiatives struggled to adjust to the year's rapidly changing economic and social environment. "It woke up a lot of C-suite officers, alerting them to stop dragging their feet on their digital transformation efforts, because they saw that the companies that were more mature in their digital transformation suffered much less disruption and much less costly disruption in that environment," said Rick Pastore, senior research director and IT advisor at the consultancy The Hackett Group. According to a mid-2020 Gartner survey, more than two-thirds of boards of directors accelerated their digital business initiatives in the wake of the COVID-19 disruption and about half foresee changing their organizations' business model as a result of the pandemic. Digital transformation requires the infusion of internet-based tools and technologies into a company's processes, so that the organization can meet and actually anticipate the wants and needs of its stakeholders.

The disparity between digital transformation leaders and laggards stems from a complex web of overlapping factors -- which often speak more to organizational issues than technical difficulties. Considerations in play include corporate history, IT philosophy, the ability to deliver on customer experience and a product vs. project mindset. A particularly important element separating a successful digital business from its competitors is a knack for translating small successes into enterprise-wide benefits. Indeed, overcoming digital transformation challenges at scale is crucial for realizing the promise of technology-infused business models, according to CIOs and industry analysts. Companies playing catch-up in the digital race must first focus on the essentials, such as customer experience, before moving on to more innovative pursuits.

Many of today's business challenges revolve around two core topics: navigating digital transformation and retaining talent. The latest insights from MIT Sloan Management Review focus on looking past common misconceptions about digital initiatives, setting the right KPIs for digital transformation success, and changing corporate culture and business operations so employees are more likely to stay. Just as today's business leaders should rethink common assumptions about the world of work and re-examine customer expectations, they may also need a new mindset about driving change. MIT Sloan senior lecturer George Westerman identifies four managerial assumptions about digital transformation that prevent enterprises from reaching their true potential. This emphasizes digital but not transformation -- the more difficult (and more important) element to address.

As Editor-in-Chief, it is my pleasure to introduce a new program: Communications' digital initiative that connects leading-edge research and technology insights and breakthroughs from ACM's conferences to a much larger audience. The idea is to select compelling topics of broad interest and highlight them in a vibrant conversation with key leaders in an interactive digital event--one you can participate with live or view later via the ACM Digital Library. We held our first digital initiative in February. Below are some details about the event and link to watch it. Communications' first Digital Event was an exciting discussion with AI research leaders from academia and industry who explored how science and AI are transforming each other.

Like snowflakes and people, no two digital enterprises are exactly alike. Digital transformation, as with countless technology initiatives over the decades, will look different from company to company. However, there are basic patterns that characterize successful digital initiatives. A survey out of BCG shows that 70% of digital transformations fall short of their objectives, often with profound consequences. With so much at stake to build digital capabilities, why do so many companies -- no matter how technically savvy, fail?

As COVID-19 vaccination rates rise, conversations about the future of work are picking up again. It's no longer the workplace of 2019; the landscape has changed significantly since then. The automated, digitized world of work that we knew would arrive "soon" is suddenly here, and many of those changes are here to stay. Chief information officers and IT leaders have a key role to play in facilitating employee adoption and encouraging buy-in for the future of an AI-enabled workforce. Organizations accelerated their digital transformation plans over the past year, or improvised along the way, to accommodate the rapid shift to virtual work.

If the pace of the pre-coronavirus world was already fast, the luxury of time now seems to have disappeared completely. Businesses that once mapped digital strategy in one- to three-year phases must now scale their initiatives in a matter of days or weeks. In one European survey, about 70 percent of executives from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland said the pandemic is likely to accelerate the pace of their digital transformation. The quickening is evident already across sectors and geographies. Consider how Asian banks have swiftly migrated physical channels online.

Even before there was a coronavirus pandemic, boards ranked digital/technology disruption as their top business priority for 2020 -- followed by obtaining the talent needed to execute tech transformation. But COVID-19 has escalated digital initiatives into digital imperatives, creating urgent pressure on HR leaders to work with their CEO, CFO and CIO to rethink skills needs as business models change at light speed. It's no easy task for this cohort to identify and acquire the digital skills their organization needs to pursue digital transformation as imagined post-COVID-19. And now companies must press forward under a new reality: Technology skills are no longer highly centered in IT; they need to be "marbled" across organizational functions and businesses and coupled with soft skills to achieve transformation success. Most companies are flying "data blind" with regard to the skills they need for transformation Understand 5 key shifts in workforce trends and know how to turbocharge your response with talent analytics.

Enterprise firms across the globe are increasingly turning to AI-driven technologies to achieve key business goals. While potential benefits are significant, many firms underestimate the fundamental change necessary to successfully integrate AI into the enterprise. Successful adoption programs need to be developed to fit the particular needs of each organization--from its data strategy, project management, and product development to its engagement with the cloud, customers, and partners. This fall, the Laboratory for Innovation Science (LISH), HBS Digital Initiative, and the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) will kick off "AI in Enterprise," an invitation-only workshop series for selected executives to learn how to manage expectations and assimilate the knowledge and tools they need to implement a successful transition to AI in the enterprise. The first in the series will focus on AI in finance.

"What use could this company make of an electrical toy?" asked Western Union president William Orton, brusquely turning down the chance to buy the patent for Alexander Graham Bell's telephone in 1877. Over 100 years later, Nokia squandered its position as the global leader in mobile phones by refusing to recognize that data -- not voice -- was the future of communication. Though a century apart, both of these companies failed to heed the headwinds of new technology, to their detriment. In hindsight, it's easy to laugh at this sort of hubris, yet today, many CEOs and their executives are at risk of taking precisely the same approach with digital technology, and it's putting their companies at risk. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics and virtual assistants are transforming business operations, product manufacturing and service delivery, while many new entrants and tech giants are capitalizing on their scale and (analytical) prowess to disrupt new industries.