EDX Course Practice

1. EDX Course – Digital Strategy and Transformation
Peer-assessed individual project 09.12.2021
Define the strategy of your company, or the business idea, in terms of strategic goals.
The company I work for has a corporate strategy in place which shows how the company’s goals are
to be achieved in order to ensure its commercial success. It further provides terms of reference for
important managerial decisions which the Executive Board, the General Managers and Managing
Directors are required to make on a short- and long-term basis (tactical and strategic measures).
Employees from various business areas and company locations came together to develop the strategy
in 2019. Together, we applied different areas of expertise to play an active role in shaping the
company‘s new corporate strategy. The aim was to find answers to the following questions:
- Where does the company want to be in 2025?
- What trends will determine the future of the company?
- What measures do we need to take in order to pave the way for lasting success?
In response to these questions, a mission statement, a target state for 2025 and strategic guidelines
were developed which together serve as a compass, pointing the way for the company in the years
ahead. The course which we are pursuing is mapped out and shown in company internal documents.
To name some of the strategic company goals:
- Be a trendsetter in terms of innovations meaning to further develop existing products, find
practical solutions, make processes more efficient, develop management methods further,
search for new technologies, promote interdisciplinary networks and bring in ideas
- Targeted service to the markets
- Sustainable profitable sales growth of more than 3% per year
- Reduction of personal accidents by 50%
- Reduction of energy consumption through environmental policy and management
- Bearing economic, ecological and social responsibility
- Promote sustainability, recycling being a key part
- Regular employee survey to assess / optimize working conditions and reinforcement of
performance and commitment
- Drive forward the digitalization maturity level of the company
- Reduction of energy consumption through environmental policy and management
Choose at least one strategic goal.

2. For the further questions I would like to choose the company‘s strategic goal of „driving forward the
digitalization maturity level“.
Make a description of the digital readiness of your company or business idea, related to the
strategic goal chosen.
Looking at the institutional digital readiness, we see that Digitalization or moreover Digital
Transformation is part of the company‘s strategy already today. There is a huge willingness to adopt
and the board is openly communicating the topic and actively pushing it by providing investments into
digital projects, research, development and human ressources. The first „quick wins“ and „low hanging
fruit“ projects have been pushed to maturity and were successful.
The involved people, meaning people across the globe playing an active part in the company‘s
transformation, are still being trained but are willing to change and to rethink the old methods, while
always having the customer and the value Digital Transformation can bring, in mind.
Looking at the countries the production sites are located in, the global digital readiness is given. There
are plenty of start-ups which are already being looked into, the technological infrastructure is good and
technologies are widespread and used more and more.
So in conclusion, I would dare to say that the company I work for is „ready for digital“.
With the strategic goal(s) chosen, design your digital strategy and define the steps to be
followed (action plan) in order to achieve your goals.
The digital strategy has to define the actions necessary to meet the company’s objectives. Concerning
the strategic goal of driving forward the digital maturity level, the objectives are as follows:
- A higher process performance
- Energy efficiency
- Innovation Leadership
Therefore we have set up three main operational strands, with each of these strands playing a part to
achieve the three objectives:
- Integrated supply chain
 Digital optimization of the production parameters
 Integrated quality assurance
 Mobile and data driven maintenance
 Multiple machine occupancy
- Efficient asset management
 Centralization and optimization of production planning

3.  Data-driven logistics and path and inventory optimization
 Paperless order processing
- Sustainability
 Establishing of a „powerful“ implementation team
 Data driven development decisions
 Reduction of rejects by increased data analysis
The operational strands are overarching and need to be filled up with certain doings / projects. What
these projects are and how we can achieve a digital roadmap, I will explain in the following:
With a corporate department „Digital Transformation“ in place, we will now go ahead and look at the
status quo of the production sites and business units concerning digital maturity. Knowing the status
quo and having detailed insights into the different processes a digital roadmap will be created for each
production site and the corresponding business unit, showing the measures to improve the digital
maturity level in the next 3-5 years.
In order to have an efficient implementation of the roadmaps, the digital transformation department
needs to coordinate the projects in the different sites to look for harmonization and standardization. Also
the structure for a subsequent global roll-out needs to be defined.
So let me sum up the key aspects:
Vision&Leadership:
• Digital Transformation is part of the company’s strategy
Customer Experience:
• Out of the internal digital objectives, in the end, the customer has to always be in focus
People and Processes
• The people are aligned with the company’s strategy and are very eager to start the digital
journey
• A maturity assessment is carried out to define the status quo of digitalization of an business
unit-related production site
• Besides the status quo, a digital roadmap looking at the development for the next three to five
years is a result of the maturity assessment
• The maturity assessment and digital roadmap projects are driven by the business units in close
cooperation with the associated production sites according to the company’s organization chart.

4. Business Model & Technology:
• The department Digital Transformation is in place to set up an organizational structure, promote
‘digital change’ and highlight how we can capitalize on economic value
• The chosen technologies will at the end be the product of the finished roadmap