“When will the Digital Transformation be finished?” a CEO asked me during a steering committee.

“Never,” I replied. He didn’t like the answer.

The word “Transformation” is dangerous. It implies a linear journey: you go from Caterpillar to Butterfly, and then you stop. You have arrived. But in the age of Deep Tech and AI, the target moves every week. By the time you finish your 2-year ERP implementation, the market has shifted twice.

From Projects to Capacities

I advise my clients to stop funding massive, monolithic “Projects” with a fixed end date. Instead, we need to fund “Capacities”.

  • Don’t build a “Data Lake Project”. Build a “Data Cleaning Capacity”.
  • Don’t run an “AI Pilot”. Build an “Experimentation Sandbox”.

I prefer the word “Adaptability”. We are not building a final structure like a cathedral. We are building a flexible skeleton like a tent, capable of surviving the next shock and moving quickly. In 2024, agility is not a methodology; it is a survival mechanism.