Ever said “Let’s Netflix and chill this weekend!” to anyone? Or asked someone one to “Google’ it” during an argument? Business success cracks a new level when your brand name becomes a verb. Netflix started with a humble beginning in Scotts Valley, a small city in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, with a business model akin to Blockbuster, the vintage US-based movie & video game rental company. Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California.

Something that both Google and Netflix did differently was that they anticipated the revolutionary

transformation in customer demand with rising digitalization. You know the rest. Netflix wiped out Blockbuster and the movie rental industry entirely and Google almost became the synonym of good old internet surfing.

However, digital transformation is much more than just a business strategy today. The massive scope of digitalization has created a whole new set of challenges for business leaders across the spectrum. Leaders in the digital era must master technical, managerial, and ethical competencies that were not as important before while staying at the cutting edge of emerging technologies. The power of data is more prominent than ever, and utilizing it is no longer an option.

Additionally, business leaders must have a fair bit of emotional intelligence as the employee requirements and expectations have also been undergoing sea changes. While identifying which employees should be provided with what capabilities and resources to optimize production remains a huge challenge, especially amidst the hybrid work culture, the clouds are dark and rainy in cybersecurity. The irony is that you are logically required to adopt a zero-trust internet policy while still fully trusting your employees. Exciting times are ahead.