About the Authors

Michael Fitzgerald is the Digital Transformation contributing editor at MIT Sloan Management Review, covering the challenges that traditional companies face as they adopt emerging technologies. He can be reached at michael@mffitzgerald.com.

Nina Kruschwitz is managing editor and special projects manager of MIT Sloan Management Review which brings ideas from the world of thinkers to the executives and managers who use them. She can be reached at smrfeedback@mit.edu.

MIT Sloan Management Review leads the discourse among academic researchers, business executives and other influential thought leaders about advances in management practice that are transforming how people lead and innovate. MIT SMR disseminates new management research and innovative ideas so that thoughtful executives can capitalize on the opportunities generated by rapid organizational, technological and societal change.

Didier Bonnet is a Senior Vice President and Global Practice Leader at Capgemini Consulting. He can be reached at didier.bonnet@capgemini.com.

Michael Welch is a Managing Consultant at Capgemini Consulting and Visiting Scientist at MIT’s Center for Digital Business. He can be reached at michael.welch@capgemini.com.

Capgemini Consulting is a global strategy and transformation consulting organization of the Capgemini Group, specializing in advising and supporting enterprises in significant transformation, from innovative strategy to execution and with an unstinting focus on results. With the new digital economy creating significant disruptions and opportunities, our global team of over 3,600 talented individuals work with leading companies and governments to master Digital Transformation, drawing on our understanding of the digital economy and our leadership in business transformation and organization change.

Acknowledgments

Lori Beer, WellPoint; Jon Bidwell, Chubb Insurance; Adam Brotman, Starbucks; Curt Garner, Starbucks; David Kiron, MIT Sloan Management Review ; Martha E. Mangelsdorf, MIT Sloan Management Review ; Andrew McAfee, MIT Center for Digital Business; Mark Norman, Zipcar; William Ruh, General Electric; Kimberly Stevenson, Intel; George Westerman, MIT Center for Digital Business.

Photo Credits

Chapter One: Earth image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech; Chapter Two: abacus image courtesy of Flickr user Sami; Chapter Three: components image courtesy of Flickr user Sami; Chapter Four: transistor image courtesy of Flickr user Marcin Wichary; Chapter Five: CCD image courtesy of Flickr user Matt Laskowski; Chapter Six: computer chip image courtesy of Flickr user Andres Rodriguez; About the Research ALMA correlator supercomputer image courtesy of European Southern Observatorty (ESO).

The ALMA correlator, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, has now been fully installed and tested at its remote, high altitude site in the Andes of northern Chile. This wide-angle view shows some of the racks of the correlator in the ALMA Array Operations Site Technical Building. This photograph shows one of four quadrants of the correlator. The full system has four identical quadrants, with over 134 million processors, performing up to 17 quadrillion operations per second.