Connecting the Corporate Brain: How Digital Platforms Accelerate Digital Transformation and Continuous Cultural Renewal

Digital transformation cannot function without a cultural change—no radical transformation can. The question arises: how to incorporate cultural change most effectively? Is cultural change incorporated through lengthy, multi-phase processes or through many small behavioral adjustments called flipping? We propose a completely different process: Cultural change is not imposed by management but initiated by employees and management alike; change takes place continuously and integrates new trends into the company and, once incorporated, is almost completely self-sustaining. The process results from a three-year, systematic, in-depth analysis of more than 40 listed companies. At its core, the process involves the integration of digital platforms in companies, which accelerate exchange between all people in the company and, thus, connect them to a corporate brain that is capable and willing to adapt quickly to upcoming trends. In three steps, we guide the reader through the most important stages necessary to incorporate a process of continuous cultural renewal and to achieve digital transformation. We thereby answer the questions of why cultural change is at all necessary for digital transformation, why innovation climate plays an important role, how exactly digital platforms function in a cultural context, and how to make the process as self-sustaining as possible.