ADAPTING TO THE DIGITAL AGE.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: Jeffrey L. Sampler's viewpoint

If you spend even a few minutes with Jeffrey L. Sampler, you'll discover he's got a one-track mind. And you'd be well advised to follow his train of thought, which leads to digital. "If it's digital, I get excited about it," says Sampler, associate professor of information management and strategy at the London Business School and keynote speaker at FEI's Financial Executives Summit in May. "As soon as it's digital, it starts to ripple and change," he adds.

Call it digital, or use the "t" word -- technology. No matter what you call it, you can't escape its impact on the transformation of every aspect of how today's business is conducted. The degree to which you adapt to the digital age will in most cases determine the success of your business. "Assess the impact of technology on your business," says Sampler.

"If it's right, execute." He says he has a simple message in what is undeniably a very complex environment: "New technology creates new business options -- things entirely possible that weren't possible before." These options relate to cost (lower transaction costs) and new products and services. The technology has evolved from its introduction at the producer level to the intermediary level, and most recently to the customer level.

"You can't escape digital," he says, as approximately two-thirds of capital expenditures for United States' industries goes for information technology, which encompasses hardware, software and telecom -- not people. "With two out of every three dollars spent by U,S. industry spent on IT, tell me that there's any company that's not an IT company," challenges Sampler. Yet, he's concerned with the level of technological understanding of senior managers who question their confidence in making the right decisions for their technology spend.

Today's biggest challenge, he says, is constantly reinventing businesses in the face of technology, and doing so at the rate of technological change. But, this has a caveat. Like a kid in a candy store, you simply can't -- and shouldn't -- have it all. "It doesn't mean blindly adopting technology. It's a matter of first understanding what technologies are relevant for your industry, your business and your particular customers and then using this knowledge to make an assessment."

That's where the strategy begins -- doing the technical assessment and then implementing. "Those are huge," he says, "and very few companies do that well." Sampler studies the impact of technology on companies of all sizes -- with a proclivity towards telecom and digital -- on three levels: how industries change, how companies...