Additional Resources

IFMA’s Executive Summit participants recommend the following books and studies to get you started on your digital transformation journey.

Anicich, E. (2022). “Dehumanization Is a Feature of Gig Work, Not a Bug” Harvard Business Review (23 June) https://hbr.org/2022/06/dehumanization-is-a-feature-of-gig-work-not-a-bug

DT enables more gig and contingent-based work. This article challenges us to consider how to make these types of jobs better, fairer and more meaningful for all kinds of contingent workers.

“Baez. L, Saunders, J. (2022). “Interview on Google’s ESG, Digital Transformation, and the Return to Occupancy journey and implications for FM.” IFMA. https://youtu.be/-ddnPZM6c6w

This video interview describes Google’s ESG journey and return to occupancy and how the facility management team uses digital technologies to help the organizations achieve these goals.”

Beane, M. (2019). “Learning to Work with Intelligent Machines” Harvard Business Review. (September-October) https://hbr.org/2019/09/learning-to-work-with-intelligent-machines

This article describes how companies are deploying AI and robotics in ways that disrupt traditional training techniques, such as mentoring and on-the-job learning. We need to understand how to combine the old with the new.

Beane M., Brynjolfsson E., (2020) “Working with Robots in a Post-pandemic World” MIT Sloan Management Review (16 September) https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/working-with-robots-in-a-post-pandemic-world/

An excellent review of how low-margin organizations integrate technologies into the workplace. Organizations spend much more time and money than anyone expected to find productive uses for new technology. The authors call this phenomenon the Productivity J-Curve: Radical new technologies require costly investments in business process redesign, worker reskilling and organizational transformation.

Mann, C., “1491: New Revelations About America Before Columbus”

This book is less relevant to digitization, perhaps, but it is an excellent book on the epic errors made by humanity. There is much to learn from history as we move into an era of fighting climate change.

Mims, C., “Arriving Today: From Factory to the Front Door”

This book describes how global supply chains require multiple digital components and human interventions working together in synchrony to produce a global supply chain system that can deliver items to our door within an hour. The process is awe-inspiring and can be deeply dehumanizing.

Noah, Y. (2015), “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.” Harper Collins

Yuval Noah”s book provides a historical perspective and future-oriented outlook of technology related to societal developments over the ages.

Tiwana, A. (2013), “Platform Ecosystems – Aligning Architecture, Governance and Strategy.” Elsevier

This book describes the principles of the platform economy related to platform development and principles of digital services delivery.

Varje, S, Spett, E. (2019), “ABM is B2B: Why B2B Marketing Sales are Broken and How to Fix It.” Ideapress Publishing.

This book concerns B2B marketing and how it transforms with technology and data into micro-targeted, "account-based" insights delivered at scale using ever-improving digital tools. One of the key takeaways is that it can be overwhelming to try to start such a transformative way of doing a core piece of work central to your entire business. Therefore people get caught up in getting the perfect data set, the perfect digital tools, etc., before trying to do anything meaningful. The simple message is that to do something is better than doing nothing. The advice is to start small, with targeted, simple sprints of implementing technology using data to replace traditional marketing methods and very focused metrics, to learn quickly, then build on that learning.

Westerman, G. et al. (2014). “Leading Digital: Turning Technology Into Business Transformation.” Harvard Business Review Press

Westerman, G. (2022). “15 Assumptions Leaders Should Reconsider” MIT Sloan Management Review.

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/15-assumptions-leaders-should-reconsider

The pandemic has changed the fundamentals of what customers want, how people work and how to drive innovation. Challenging assumptions about what will drive growth for your organization is essential when creating post-pandemic products and services.

Westerman, G. (2021) “The New Elements of Digital Transformation” MIT Sloan Management Review. Winter Issue. Vol 62, No. 2-(27 July) https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/digital-transformation-after-pandemic

Wilkerson, I. (2020), “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” Random House.

As Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEI&J) become a focus for attracting and retaining talent, this book gives a good history of getting where we are.