Digital business leaders must push their firms from digital as a bolt-on to digital by default. To do this, they must capitalize on the early momentum they’ve built developing capabilities like eCommerce and mobile apps to drive lasting change. They need a visible signal to galvanize their organizations. Mobile apps are that catalyst. As KLM’s former senior vice president of digital, Tjalling Smit, said, “Mobile is a catalyst. Less the device — more the behavior.”
Smartphones have evolved from its origins as a small-screen version of the web, or a discrete channel of five years ago, into a powerful disruptor of businesses. Increasingly, mobile phones are the hub of your customers’ connected lives, linking web, chat, conversational interfaces, contextual notifications, connected products like Google Home, Android TV, watches and more. Mobile phones is the tail that wags the digital dog. T. Rowe Price’s Dennis Elliott summed this up well: “We view mobile-first and digital-first as interchangeable.”
