What Digitalization Means for M&A and Knowledge Work

Technology Unlocks New Possibilities
By Kalle Kilpi of Midaxo, a partner of the M&A Leadership Council

Digitization means changing an analogue process to a digital format. Digitalization, on the other hand, means a game-changing new way of working - a disruption of sorts - enabled by technology.

It’s easy to understand how digitalization disrupts industries like retail shops in a game-changing way. The store is replaced by a virtual catalogue, orders are placed online, customers around the world can access the store, costs are saved, store clerk jobs are made redundant and so on.

It’s harder to understand how digitalization provides a game-changing disruption to knowledge work, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Sure, many meetings are replaced by collaborative tools and Excel spreadsheets are replaced with online project management trackers, but that is not yet real, game-changing disruption enabled by digitalization. Read more.