Digital Disruption

How Technology Is Changing The World

By: Peter Alkema

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Review of the Book by Calvin Smith "Alkema condenses the very broad topic of digital into an easy-to-grasp read. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digital adoption of consumers therefore forcing companies to shift their thinking and re-invent their business models to adapt to the digital explosion of 2020 - hence this book is a prerequisite to start off 2021. His extensive knowledge of the field, particularly in the financial services industry where it has seen widespread adoption, enables him to bring across seemingly daunting terminology as strikingly simple – the way it should be. For example, a key distinction he makes from the outset, which I found invaluable in structuring my thoughts, was that between digital disruption and digital transformation. Both are critical to understand the digital landscape and Alkema goes into considerable detail to explain, in words us ordinary people can understand, how these concepts have changed and will continue to change the world we live in. No longer will you be far out at sea when it comes to convincing people (interestingly enough, according to Alkema, it’s the middle-managers we really have to persuade - not the big boss) about the revolutionary benefits of digital and how you can implement it within your organization. It turns out there is a whole culture side to digital, not just the tech itself. The book touches on the ever-contentious topic of blockchain technology and the cloud and goes on to describe why these two technologies are pivotal to owning the future. Furthermore, the book has hidden gems that I found fascinating such as the topic of discontinuous innovation and why large lethargic organizations need to self-disrupt and get back in the shoes of the customer - before they are left behind like the many unfortunate losers Alkema mentions in the book. A clear message throughout the book is for people and their institutions to shift their thinking now and it conveniently provides practical examples of how this is being done and can be achieved in fast-transforming industries such as the financial sector. In my opinion, the difference between this compact read and other books covering the topic of digital is that Alkema has skin in the game in one of the world’s largest banks - you just can’t fake the simplicity that experience provides. Take this book as an investment in the most underrated and valuable asset in the world – your knowledge – before a machine sees better returns than you." Review of Peter Alkema's Digital Masterclass course:"This course was very interresting imo, it shows how our world have been changed and how it might change in the future, it could open our eyes on digitalization of almost every single aspect of our life. I think it's a good starting point when you are start thinking about digitalization in general.""Great content which touches on all the various aspects for digital disruption from a senior technology leader at South Africa's most innovative bank. Highly recommended for anyone who would like to have an overview of what digital disruption is about." Review of Peter Alkema's course on Agile & Hackathons: "Peter is a really an innovative leader with great ideas and a canny ability to execute on them. His personal experience in standing up the CodeFest Hackathons in a corporate organisation and then working with others to make it a de-facto way of work in the organization, challenging the status-quo and driving innovative new ways of thinking and working, has contributed greatly to the success of the FRG Group. Now Peter shares that knowledge with us all and allows us to take the learnings from many years of tweaking this initiative, and bring it to your own organization. I would highly recommend this course to anybody stuck in their corporate way of work, looking for ways to break out of that pattern to start experimenting with hackathons and new agile ways of working."