As enterprises wade into the digital economy, it's critical to understand how investments in IT impact business and how companies can harness digital disruption.
Digital = Dollars
At around US $5.9 trillion, the United States ranks highest in the economic value created from the digital economy. It represents about a third of the gross domestic product.
Digital Workforce
43% of the U.S. workforce is part of the digital economy—the highest of the 11 national economies analyzed in this report.
Capital Gains
26% of the accumulated capital in the U.S. supports digital-related activity. By contrast, the figure is 30% in the United Kingdome and 10% in China.
Going Global
22% of the world's gross domestic product is linked to the digital economy.
Domestic Industries
In the U.S., financial services leads the way toward the digital economy at 57% of economic output. It is followed by business services (54%) and communications (47%).
Global Industries
The leaders in the global digital economy are health care (28%), retail (22%) and consumer goods (20%).
Opportunities Ahead?
The countries poised to achieve the greatest percentage gains in digital GDP by 2020 are Brazil (6.6%), Italy (4.2%), China (3.7%), Japan (3.3%) and Spain (3.2%).
Skills Matter
The countries with current skills that are best-positioned to take advantage of the digital economy are Italy, Brazil, the U.K., Spain, Australia and France.
Tech Is Key
The countries with current technology that's best-positioned to take advantage of the digital economy are Japan, the U.S., Spain, Australia, China, German and Netherlands.
Diverse Investments
To maximize opportunities by 2020, the U.S. must invest 10% of its focus on technology, 40% on skills and 50% on digital accelerators (cultural aspects that support digital entrepreneurship).
The digital economy is more than a concept that's tied only to information technology. It increasingly intersects with all aspects of business and life. A recently released report from Accenture, "Digital Disruption: The Growth Multiplier," delivers some intriguing insights into this somewhat immature but rapidly evolving space. Among other things, the study found that optimizing the use of digital skills and technologies could generate U.S. $2 trillion of additional global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, and that the digital economy is already far larger than most people recognize, at about 22.5 percent of the world's economy. As organizations wade deeper into the digital economy, it's critical for business and IT leaders to understand how investments in information technology impact business and how their organization can harness digital disruption. It's also critical to understand what skills and knowledge are required to navigate this frontier. The report suggests that business leaders focus on three key issues: prioritize digital investments based on value opportunities; establish an industry-specific digital strategy; and create the right environment for digital transformation. Here's a look at some of the key highlights from the report.
Samuel Greengard writes about business and technology for Baseline, CIO Insight and other publications. His most recent book is The Internet of Things (MIT Press, 2015).