The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation (Management on the Cutting Edge)

by Gerald C. Kane

As we searched for a way to frame our research insights and guidance, we found ourselves returning repeatedly to a familiar story from our childhoods, the story of the Wizard of Oz. Most of us know the 1939 MGM movie that made a star out of sixteen-year-old Judy Garland. The film’s famous lines, including “There’s no place like home” and “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” are well-known staples of popular culture. The Wizard of Oz story is the story of Dorothy, a young Kansas farm girl, who, after being knocked unconscious in a cyclone that carries her house to the land of Oz, follows the yellow brick road, alongside her dog, Toto, to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz. Along the way, Dorothy encounters a cast of characters, including the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West. The movie starts with the cyclone, which seems like an apt metaphor for digital disruption. Dorothy didn’t choose to go to Oz but was swept up by forces beyond her control. Her world in Kansas is shown in black and white, in stark contrast to the Technicolor land of Oz, where her house lands. Dorothy has no choice but to navigate this new landscape, developing new friendships and facing unfamiliar challenges, to find her way home. Aspects of the cyclone accurately characterize how many companies experience digital disruption. For most, it’s a journey that companies engage in because they have no choice. They have been swept up by forces be...