Setting Digital Principles

In order to reach a level of digital business that fits your organization you need to come up with principles and goals that get you there. These principles and goals act as tie breakers in the heat of battle. What will affect your principles will be whether you believe that you are just a business that leverages digital or whether you are a true digital business. Your organizations strategy could be aimed at diagnosing and eliminating near term challenges leveraging digital technologies with a “bolt on” approach while progressing to becoming a digital business that reflects all of the business goals and principles. With that being said, I have identified a good starting list for business principles and technical principles to use as a jump start list to add to or delete from. These principles might not work for a highly regulated organization, but they can be leveraged and adapted. 

Business Principles:

* Attract and Spoil Customers (start and finish outside in eliminating internal silos)

* Build with Inclusion and Organize for Change (agility is better than perfection)

* Create Operation Excellence (technology eliminates complexity & reduces cost)

* Encourage & Reward Innovation (products, services, processes / apps tire)

* Outcomes Ahead of Processes (goal driven processes/apps & smart actions)

* Make Visibility to All a Priority (not just for governance but for results analysis)

* Speed Wins over Perfection (evolution works and tech is fast)

Technical Principles:

* Collaborate with the Business First (represents the customer & constituents)

* Experimentation is Essential for Innovation (time and legality are the guardrails)

* Composition First Instead of Creation (somebody has already done it)

* Agile Development is First Prize (methods & practices encourage iteration)

* Scalability and Security Deigned Early (explosive growth breaks and attracts)

* Design for Sustainability (pillage mentality is dying)

* Design with Autonomy in Mind (central control relaxes with goals & constraints)

Net; Net:

While these principles and fleshing out the goals that cascade from these principles may not fit your organization exactly, these may give you a jump start. It would be important for you to define digital for your organization, so you might refer to this definition post 

http://jimsinur.blogspot.com/2015/10/what-is-digital-business.html