Bossard Fasteners (B): Developing a digital strategy by refusing a digital transformation
Back in 2014, Bossard’s growth had been driven largely by an excellent executive management board, led by CEO David Dean, a long-time Bossard leader, who focused on three strategic pillars: product solutions, engineering and logistics. While enjoying the success of the company, the CEO and the Chairman started a process to focus on new technologies that will impact the industrial fastener market and the production of their main customers, i.e. OEM manufacturers. 3D-Printing, for example, will not replace the manufacturing of industrial fasteners in the near future. However, if more industrial parts are 3-printed and not assembled, there is no need for fasteners. On the logistics and production front, the Internet-of-Things (IoT), Industry 4.0, and Robotics will change the factory of the future. Big Data, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence will also open new frontiers in manufacturing, and finally, “smart screws” have the potential to serve as sensors for collecting relevant data. Despite all these new technology, Bossard decided that it does not need a “Digital Transformation”, but realized that it had no shared vision for the company’s digital future.
- How to identify opportunities and threaths from new technology, both for the focal company’s own business model, but more importantly, for the business models of its customers.
- How to distinguish a “digital transformation” from a “digital strategy”.
- How to create a roadmap for developing and implementing a digital strategy without weakening the established and successful business model.
Bossard Holding
2017-2018
Cranfield University
Wharley End Beds MK43 0JR, UK
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Harvard Business School Publishing
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Tel (800) 545-7685 Tel (617)-783-7600
Fax (617) 783-7666
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NUCB Business School
1-3-1 Nishiki Naka
Nagoya Aichi, Japan 460-0003
Tel +81 52 20 38 111
Email [email protected]
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in MIT Sloan Management Review Summer 2024, vol. 65, no. 4
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