BCG carves out a new unit for its digital transformation capabilities

Management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on Thursday announced the launch of BCG X – “a hybrid tech, build, and design unit” for accelerated digital transformation, tech and business innovation, Artificial Intelligence, and advanced analytics.

The global consulting major said the new unit will bring together nearly 3,000 technologists, builders, and designers. The unit will offer solutions for AI, software, design, digital growth, deep tech, and green tech.

BCG also released new research, which finds around 60 per cent of companies plan to increase their spending on digital transformation in 2023 vs. 2022, with business model transformation and sustainability as the top two areas for future investments. The majority of the companies plan to increase investment in digital transformation despite global economic headwinds, the report says.

Titled “Mind the Tech Gap,” the study is based on a survey of nearly 2,700 executives driving digital transformations in companies across 13 countries and a wide range of industries.

The report says making the right choices among disruptive technologies, reaching scale fast with new digital solutions, recruiting digital talent, prioritizing investment, and managing the costs are the five key challenges in establishing and executing digital transformations.

Sylvain Duranton, the newly appointed global leader of BCG X, said: “What’s clear from our survey is that most companies are struggling to deliver bottom-line results for their digital transformations and are facing consistent pain points with their tech partners and vendors. BCG X, as an integral part of BCG, will bring tech build and design capabilities together to solve these problems.”

Nipun Kalra, Managing Director Partner and lead for BCG X for India said a significant part of the workforce in the new unit will be based out of India.

“In our experience, the hardest task in a digital transformation is to get business and tech to operate in lockstep. With BCG & BCG X, we bring together our classic problem-solving hustle powered by deep capabilities in tech, design, and data to deliver unparalleled business results for our clients with a seamless experience,” he said.

Around 94 per cent of companies have big aspirations to deliver substantial and rapid impact from digital transformation. However, over 70 per cent of digital transformations fail to achieve their objectives often with profoundly damaging consequences, the survey finds.

“Many CEOs I speak with are grappling with the challenge of delivering their business strategy through major digital transformations. To tip the scales, we are doubling down on BCG X, our nearly 3,000-person tech build and design unit. BCG X will turbocharge BCG’s deep industry and functional expertise to enable innovation at scale and deliver successful end-to-end digital transformations,” said Christoph Schweizer, BCG’s CEO.