Didier Bonnet

Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation

Didier Bonnet is Professor of Strategy and Digital Transformation. He focuses on digital economics, digital strategy, disruptive innovation, and the process of large-scale digital transformation for global corporations. A globally recognized thought leader on digital transformation, he was a precursor in anticipating the scale and impact of the digital revolution that is now sweeping through our economies. He is also the author of a bestselling book that makes the provocative argument that the next phase of digital technology adoption will make everything that’s happened so far look like a prelude.

Bonnet helps boards and management teams make the shift to the new digital economy and implement the changes in business models, operations, and customer experiences that this requires.

With over 30 years’ experience in strategy and transformation consulting, he is a trusted advisor and coach to senior executives who are leading their organizations through complex digital transformations.

Although the impact of digitization is not new, the accelerating pace of digital innovation presents relentless growth opportunities and unprecedented transformation challenges for all boards, CEOs, and executives. Some companies will graduate to digital businesses, while others will struggle or not make the transition at all.

His work spans information economics, digital transformation, platform strategies, digital innovation, the future of work, and organizational transformation. He also leads research programs on how the digital economy is impacting individuals, corporations, and society at large.

Bonnet has designed and directed customized digital transformation programs for large global B2C and B2B organizations and provided coaching advice to senior leaders in a variety of industries, including telecoms, banking, high-tech, insurance, consumer goods, media, transport, and industrial goods.

At IMD, he is Co-Director of the Digital Transformation in Practice (DTIP), Digital Transformation for Boards (DTB) and Leading Customer-Centric Strategies (LCCS) programs, and he teaches strategy and digital transformation in several other open programs. For the last 10 years, he has led a joint research program with the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE), at the Sloan School of Management, on the impact of digital technology on business models and society. He is also a non-executive board member of the SKEMA Foundation.

Bonnet is co-author of the bestselling book, Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation, which has been described as the “source code” for understanding the DNA of successful digital transformation. The book’s insights won praise from former EMC Chair and CEO Joe Tucci and former Pernod Ricard CEO Pierre Pringuet. This was followed in 2021 by Hacking Digital: Best Practices to Implement and Accelerate your Business Transformation, which provides a practical guide for how to navigate the challenges of digital transformation execution.

His research has been published in top management journals such as Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, R&D Management, Quarterly Review of Marketing, Strategy Direction, and Business Strategy Review. He is also a public speaker on digital transformation and has frequently been published and quoted in the media, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Financial Times, The Economist, the BBC, CNN, and CNBC.

Bonnet joined IMD in 2019 after a 30-year career in strategy consulting. He was Global Digital Transformation Practice Leader at Capgemini Invent and Global Leader of the Telecom, Media & Entertainment practice at Gemini Consulting. He started his career in hi tech and consulting with Coopers & Lybrand Consulting and Putnam Hayes & Bartlett.

Selected publications
Hacking digital: Best practices to implement and accelerate your business transformation
Book
Hacking digital: Best practices to implement and accelerate your business transformation
Digital transformation has become commonplace across public and private sector organizations, and yet most struggle to achieve tangible results from it. Many make avoidable mistakes or fall into si...
Published 4 October 2021
Article
The new elements of digital transformation
The authors revisit their landmark research and address how the competitive advantages offered by digital technology have evolved.
Published 2 January 2021
Article
Why innovation’s future isn’t (just) open
New digital technologies have upended conventional business models, organizational structures, and operating processes in most industries. Almost every aspect of business — customer relations, supp...
Published 11 May 2020
Article
Lifting the lid on disruption fever
This paper provides evidence based quantification of both “actual” disruption of industries as well as a measure of disruption “hype”. The data cover a seven-year period from 2012 to 2018 across 12...
Published 23 July 2020
Article
Don't buy the hype: Busting the myths of digital transformation
Digital Transformation is getting the worldwide attention it deserves. Executives in every industry and country are seeing opportunities to improve their businesses and sensing threats if they don’...
Published 30 March 2020
Article
Reframing growth strategy in a digital economy
Big corporations need new strategies in a world of digital disruptors. That means setting ambitious visions and coming up with concrete action plans. The new C-suite mantra: “What’s your play?”
Published 14 February 2017
Article
It's time for boards to cross the digital divide
Is there any aspect of your daily life and business that is not significantly affected by digital technology? Not likely. Just think about all the ways that digital is integrated into your own dail...
Published 9 July 2014
Book
Leading digital: Turning technology into business transformation
Become a Digital Master—No Matter What Business You’re In If you think the phrase “going digital” is only relevant for industries like tech, media, and entertainment—think again. In fact, mobile, ...
Published 1 October 2014
Academic publications
Hacking digital: Best practices to implement and accelerate your business transformation
Book
Hacking digital: Best practices to implement and accelerate your business transformation
Digital transformation has become commonplace across public and private sector organizations, and yet most struggle to achieve tangible results from it. Many make avoidable mistakes or fall into si...
Published 4 October 2021
Book
Leading digital: Turning technology into business transformation
Become a Digital Master—No Matter What Business You’re In If you think the phrase “going digital” is only relevant for industries like tech, media, and entertainment—think again. In fact, mobile, ...
Published 1 October 2014
Article
Lifting the lid on disruption fever
This paper provides evidence based quantification of both “actual” disruption of industries as well as a measure of disruption “hype”. The data cover a seven-year period from 2012 to 2018 across 12...
Published 23 July 2020
Article
Embracing digital technology: A new strategic imperative
Companies routinely invest in technology, and too often feel they get routine results. Technology's promise is not simply to automate processes, but to open routes to new ways of doing business. To...
Published 1 December 2014
Article
The nine elements of digital transformation
Digital transformation--the use of technology to radically improve performance or reach of enterprises--is a hot topic for companies across the globe. Executives in all industries are using digital...
Published 7 January 2014
Article
Revamping your business through digital transformation: To gain the most business benefits from today’s digital technology, it pays to question key managerial assumptions
For large companies in traditional industries, its easy to think that digital transformation can wait and that a follower strategy is a safer route than trying to be a pioneer. That kind of thinkin...
Published 18 February 2015
Insight for Executives
Twitter’s future: Lift off or crash and burn?
Article
Twitter’s future: Lift off or crash and burn?
Elon Musk’s reign at the social media giant has got off to a chaotic start, but he’s no fool and could yet take the company on an unconventional path to prosperity. Here’s how he could lead the tra...
Published 20 January 2023
Article
3 stages of a successful digital transformation
Most digital transformations fail. Various studies from academics, consultants, and analysts indicate that the rate of digital transformations failing to meet their original objectives ranges from ...
Published 20 September 2022
Article
Why innovators in China stay close to the market
Look at the electric shavers on offer from Philips at stores in New York, London, or Tokyo, and one will seem much like another. But go to Shanghai, or a smaller Chinese city like Yantai, and you’l...
Published 13 September 2022
Design thinking: Combine technology and people for design thinking on steroids
Article
Design thinking: Combine technology and people for design thinking on steroids
The human-centered approach to problem-solving holds the key to unlocking both high-value opportunities for customers, and driving strategic change within organizations.
Published 4 March 2022
Unpacking the digital transformation at IKEA
Article
Unpacking the digital transformation at IKEA
In an IbyIMD interview, Barbara Martin Coppola, Chief Digital Officer of IKEA Retail (Ingka Group), explains how she is helping to take the company, famous for its out-of-town stores and physical p...
Published 15 February 2022
Article
How resilience is powered by digital technologies
Sometimes we can find inspiration for how to compete in the future by looking into the past — in particular, at the stories of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod. Hesiod described the story of the hydra...
Published 29 October 2021
Article
How digital leaders can be more credible
There has been a steady proliferation of digital roles in the C-Suite over the last decade, with titles such as chief digital officer, chief data officer and chief transformation officer becoming c...
Published 13 October 2021
Focus on people and culture for digital transformation at scale
Article
Focus on people and culture for digital transformation at scale
Companies that undergo digital transformation successfully are more profitable but the vast majority of change programs fail.
Published 1 July 2021
Discover the 3D secrets to true customer centricity
Video
Discover the 3D secrets to true customer centricity
If you want to achieve true customer centricity, you need to combine the possibilities of digital transformation with classic “human” leadership skills. At OWP liVe, Didier Bonnet, Frédéric Dalsace...
Published 2 June 2021
Fuse soft skills and digital for customer centricity on steroids
Article
Fuse soft skills and digital for customer centricity on steroids
Technology alone cannot unlock all the answers for understanding customers. Companies must blend soft skills such as empathy, humility and audacity with digital innovation to achieve true customer ...
Published 13 May 2021
Putting the customer at the heart of your business requires more than just good intentions
Video
Putting the customer at the heart of your business requires more than just good intentions
Integrate a customer-centric mindset, digital enablers and leadership capabilities to serve your customers, advise IMD Professors Katharina Lange, Frederic Dalsace and Didier Bonnet
Published 29 January 2021
Article
The new elements of digital transformation
The authors revisit their landmark research and address how the competitive advantages offered by digital technology have evolved.
Published 2 January 2021
Article
Addressing full digital transformation challenges
We’re all digital workers now, but the COVID-19 effect is unlikely to miraculously enable full large-scale digital transformations. The specter of future crises should.
Published 14 August 2020
A revolution in adoption, but digital transformation challenges await
Article
A revolution in adoption, but digital transformation challenges await
We’re all digital workers now, but the COVID-19 effect is unlikely to miraculously enable full large-scale digital transformations. The specter of future crises should.
Published 14 July 2020
Blend internal and external innovation for success
Article
Blend internal and external innovation for success
Companies must be wary of letting outsourcing that was helpful under COVID conditions become the permanent rule.
Published 19 June 2020
Article
Why innovation’s future isn’t (just) open
New digital technologies have upended conventional business models, organizational structures, and operating processes in most industries. Almost every aspect of business — customer relations, supp...
Published 11 May 2020
Article
Don't buy the hype: Busting the myths of digital transformation
Digital Transformation is getting the worldwide attention it deserves. Executives in every industry and country are seeing opportunities to improve their businesses and sensing threats if they don’...
Published 30 March 2020
Article
Reflections on a decade of digital transformation
On the eve of this new decade, it is worth reflecting on what has truly been one of the most talked about, exciting and challenging business transitions of the 2010s, digital transformation. So muc...
Published 29 January 2020
Article
Reframing growth strategy in a digital economy
Big corporations need new strategies in a world of digital disruptors. That means setting ambitious visions and coming up with concrete action plans. The new C-suite mantra: “What’s your play?”
Published 14 February 2017
Article
The best digital business models put evolution before revolution
What, another clarion call urging executives to fundamentally rethink their business models through digital technology? The business media have had no shortage of these. Many such bulletins focus o...
Published 20 January 2015
Article
We need better managers not more technocrats
igital technology is the biggest agitator of the business world today. Mobile technology, social media, cloud computing, embedded devices, big data, and analytics have radically changed the nature ...
Published 30 September 2014
Article
Convincing employees to use new technology
All of our companies are digital now – or quickly becoming that way. Almost any enterprise you can think of, no matter the industry or sector, is trying (or being pressured by competitors) to use n...
Published 9 September 2014
Article
It's time for boards to cross the digital divide
Is there any aspect of your daily life and business that is not significantly affected by digital technology? Not likely. Just think about all the ways that digital is integrated into your own dail...
Published 9 July 2014
Article
Do you have the IT for the coming digital wave?
With a tsunami of new digital technologies all converging simultaneously — social, mobile, cloud, analytics and embedded devices — there has been, once again, a cry for corporate IT to radically ch...
Published 26 August 2013
Article
The advantages of digital maturity : The higher a company’s level of digital maturity, the better its financial performance is likely to be
New digital technologies like social media, mobile and analytics are advancing rapidly on the economic landscape. These innovations are used widely by consumers and employees alike. Facebook alone ...
Published 20 November 2012
Article
The digital capabilities your company needs: These days, the most fundamental technology requirements are not just the responsibility of your IT department
In today’s business environment, digital capabilities are a fundamental building block with which companies can transform customer experience, operational processes and business models. Although CI...
Published 29 October 2012
Hacking Digital
Book
Hacking Digital
Published 1 January 0001
Best practices to implement and accelerate your business transformation