Introduction to the report
In this study, we look at 10 companies that have embraced digital-led business model innovations and completely altered the way they compile, create and market their products and services. These companies represent incumbents across geographies and industries but have links through the common thread of transformation. The first edition of this study, done last year, identified 10 companies as global leaders in DX best practices. Obviously, in hindsight and with data, we can better understand the impact of those digital decisions, and not all our insights hit the bull’s eye. But here is a brief note on what happened post-COVID for our 2020 leaders:
The DX 2020 companies
How the DX 2020 companies fared last year?
How did the markets react?
2020 is a year of a great paradox. On the one hand, the real economy has shrunk, but on the other, a massive USD120 billion per month asset-buying plan has flooded the market with tons of cash. The cash deployment is causing asset bubbles to come up around various international markets and fuelling a rapid rise in the market values of many stocks.
Despite the revenue declines recorded by five of the 2020 DX top ten firms on our list, only JP Morgan and Marriott recorded a real stock market decline. Disney (20%), Orsted (93%), and Nike (33%) all recorded massive market gains even though the fundamental business variables were showing weak performances.
DX 2021 Top 10 Companies
We looked at 19,000 stocks across 10 global markets constituting 90-95% of the world’s GDP to begin the exercise. Across regions, technology, healthcare, retail, consumer, electric vehicles, and commodity companies were the key sectors capturing the majority of market euphoria. We narrowed down our research to 43 firms based on various filters around digital transformation, business models and tech spends. Brief findings of our research are below:
Our ranking methodology
Last year, we evaluated our top 10 companies based on three pillars:
Each pillar made sense at the time, given the fact that DX is not a tech-first change but a mindset shift per se. This year, however, we have further simplified the three pillars and identified attributes that every leader must understand and evaluate to self-disrupt his business at the core. The three pillars are Define, Simplify, and Innovate. We have used this framework not just to evaluate the companies but to aid you in understanding what makes 2021 DX leaders special and the global benchmarks to learn from. A brief summary of the leaders is captured in this study, while detailed profiles of each available on the platform.
twimbit DX framework
The Top 10 DX Stories for 2021
