Digital Darwinism. Survival of the Fittest in the Age of Business Disruption, reviewed

By @SimonCocking, review of Digital Darwinism Survival of the Fittest in the Age of Business Disruption, by Tom Goodwin, available from KoganPage here.

Digital Darwinism takes an exhilarating look at disruptive thinking to inspire those who want to be the best at digital transformation. Change across business is accelerating, but the lifespan of companies is decreasing. Life is more unpredictable than ever and leaders are facing a growing abundance of decisions to make, data to process and technology that threatens to disrupt even the most established business models. These are the forces that could destroy your company but, with the right strategy in place, they could also help you transform it into a market leader. Digital Darwinism is a guiding hand through the turbulence of this moment, offering practical strategies as well as an ambitious call-to-action that lights a fire underneath complacency and inspires creative change.

The author of the book is in a great position to view innovation, and what is, and is not, actually cutting edge and breaking new ground. Much like our own work (we reviewed this book while traveling from the western edge of Europe to keynote in Tbilisi – now mining 15% of the worlds bitcoin did you know!?)  he spends his time frequently traveling and observing first hand how people are actually using technology, and taking the pulse of what is hype and what is common usage. In his foreword, he talks about the fear and the challenge of writing this book. Fortunately, as a frequent article contributor to some great media outlets, his fears are unfounded and this is a smart, readable and insightful book. There are lots of good observations and analysis, and pithy comments such as this one on page 147.

“People are funny. The top two things most people complain about are the way things are and change in the world …”

In many ways, this encapsulates many of the themes in the book. Technology is rushing forward at a rapid rate, but as long as we still have humans around, and to interact and deal with it, adoption rates may continue to be lumpy and unpredictable. We have a bunch of innovation, digital disruption and other related books to read and review. This is definitely one of the better ones. His bugbears about technology are also enjoyable, smart and insightful, reminding us that we have come to accept some silly ways of doing things, solely because of an initial clumsy migration in our technological evolution – like why we still have the icon for a floppy disc when we want to ‘save’ something.

His final words are also relevant and important

“this book is a call to re-humanize not just technology

but our interactions with each other …”

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie or on Twitter: @SimonCocking