Review of "The Digital Helix: Transforming Your Organization’s DNA to Thrive in the Digital Age," by Michael Gale & Chris Aarons

Review of

The Digital Helix: Transforming Your Organization’s DNA to Thrive in the Digital Age, by Michael Gale & Chris Aarons ISBN 9781626344648

Five out of five stars

 While readers will understand that the phrase “Organization’s DNA” in the title is figurative, they generally will not realize that the use of the term “digital helix” is also metaphoric. It is used to mean surviving and thriving in the modern condition where business and industries are changing at a pace never before seen in human history. A business model with products that can take a company to the level of being in the Fortune 500 can vanish in a few years to the point where there is the threat of bankruptcy. Many of the old, “tried and true,” methods of doing business simply no longer work as well, if at all.

 The authors cover the wide spectrum of tactics that modern managers can use to form, grow and maintain their businesses. Some of those tactics involve true digital automation, while others deal with the often more difficult strategy of acquiring and maintaining the talented people that allow for the needed agile operations.

 Many companies make the mistake of thinking that acquiring new digital technologies will lead to an automatic improvement in their internal performance. That is a false belief, changes of this form have to be across the organization and are more about being flexible in all approaches, effectively imaginative and avoiding complacency. That is the message of this book and it is well delivered.