MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Digital Transformation on Purpose

Digital technology has great potential to address many challenges facing the world, but its effects on society are being experienced at such breakneck speed that there has been little time to consider how its diffusion can serve society’s higher goals. In a series of articles over the coming months, we will explore the question of how digitalization can be done “on purpose” — that is, how we can ensure that digitalization will be a force for good, a force to transform economies so that they foster greater equity, environmental integrity, and shared global prosperity.

This article sets out to define the terms digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation so that they can serve as a framework for understanding how the digital revolution can also become a revolution for sustainable development. It represents a first step in helping leaders purposefully guide their organizations toward a better digital future.