Paving the Way for Digital Transformation
How a CIO helped maximize a legacy business while helping create an innovative new business.
In my previous blog post, I began telling the story of a CIO’s role in the business transformation of H. D. Smith to expand its core business of pharmaceutical products distribution to include innovative, integrated technology-enabled services. The leadership team had a vision of where they wanted the business to go. But they also recognized that the pharmaceutical distribution world was beginning to head into a digital future and, if they wanted to participate in that growth, they would have to invest in the fundamentals to get there. Given the firm’s underinvested legacy IT environment at the time its digital journey began, a successful transformation was a daunting task.
I spoke with CIO David Guzmán about strategies deployed and steps taken in this business transformation. As I explained in my previous blog, the first step was a necessary mindset change. Next came three major foundational building blocks to create the potential for innovation.
