Context
The researchers use the name Rho to protect the organisation’s identity. Rho faced an unusually serious situation: its existing core business was expected to stop within a few years.
What Rho did
The organisation concentrated its digital effort on improving internal processes. Process improvement could reduce friction or cost, but it did not create a replacement for the business that was declining.
Observed outcome
The study places Rho within an unsuccessful pathway. The digital work addressed an operational problem while the organisation faced a larger strategic problem: how it would create value after the existing business was no longer viable.
Why the initiative underperformed
The scope of change was too narrow for the threat confronting the organisation. Improving an existing operation is different from creating a new service or business model. Urgency encouraged visible action, but the action did not adequately answer the most important decision.
What leadership should take from the case
Separate efficiency, capability improvement and business-model renewal. State which problem each initiative is expected to solve. If the existing source of value is declining, leadership should not assume that internal digitisation will replace it.
What this means for infrastructure decisions
Business First means defining the actual decision before evaluating technology. A focused decision review can preserve speed while checking whether the proposed scope is sufficient for the business problem.
Source and evidence note
Soto Setzke et al., “Pathways to Digital Service Innovation,” Information Systems Frontiers 25 (2023), 1017–1037. DOI: 10.1007/s10796-021-10112-0. Rho case discussed on p. 1027.
Peer-reviewed multi-case research; anonymised organisation. The interpretation above stays within the published case description.