Accelerating digital innovation inside and out

For the past five years, MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte Digital have investigated digital maturity, focusing on the organizational changes, rather than the technological, wrought by digital disruption. This year’s study, based on a global survey of more than 4,800 managers, executives, and analysts, reveals that gaps in digital maturity between organizations can often be explained by a company’s approach to innovation: Digitally maturing companies are not only innovating more, they’re innovating differently.

MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte Digital’s fifth annual study of digital business presents the following key findings:

1. Digitally maturing companies innovate at far higher rates than their less mature counterparts.
2. Employees of digitally maturing organizations have more latitude to innovate in their jobs — regardless of what those jobs may be.
3. Digitally maturing companies are far more likely than their less mature counterparts to collaborate with external partners and participate in digital ecosystems, instead of traditional partnerships.
4. Cross-functional teams are another important source of digital innovation. Not only are digitally maturing companies more likely to use cross-functional teams, those teams are given greater autonomy and their members are often evaluated as a unit.
5. Digitally maturing companies are more agile and innovative, but as a result they require greater governance and sturdy ethical guardrails around the increased autonomy they allow.