Benoit Anger, NEOMA Business School: Beyond Digital Transformation, the Digital Metamorphosis

What word would you choose to define digital transformation? Our guests enjoy this question and never lack imagination. Benoit Anger, Deputy CEO for Communications and Business Development at NEOMA Business School, proposes “metamorphosis” today. But forget mythology — this is firmly rooted in reality: a society growing from childhood into adulthood, navigating its existing constraints, and finally emerging from its chrysalis. So, are you ready for your own digital metamorphosis?

You chose the word metamorphosis. Why does that word resonate with you today?

Benoit Anger. What I find fascinating about the word metamorphosis is, first, that it signals the passage into adulthood. Applying that image to digital transformation means that until you’ve completed your transformation, you haven’t reached adult status — you’ve remained a child relative to the world around you.

What also appeals to me is that a metamorphosis implies irreversible changes, changes that are influenced and accelerated by the external environment. And when we talk about digital transformation, organizations often transform because they are forced to, or because external forces push them to change. It isn’t necessarily a natural phenomenon — there are “ external factors ” that drive transformation, and this is precisely what we experience every day, with companies disrupting markets and upending entire sectors.

In “ metamorphosis ”, there is also the idea that an organism evolves based on organs that already exist. In the same way, you transform a structure that already existed — you evolve it, new organs emerge, new business models and products appear as part of this digital transformation. Ultimately, you end up with a combination of what already existed and what is newly born. It is this symbiosis of the two that makes digital transformation successful and confirms that the digital metamorphosis has truly taken place.

Were you inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses in choosing this term?

Benoit Anger. What struck me was the biological sense of metamorphosis. Why? Because Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as you mention, are narratives drawn from mythology — and mythology involves imaginary characters, distorted and amplified representations, and so on. But digital transformation is reality; the digital metamorphosis is reality. I am not in the realm of the imaginary; I am in reality. That said, I fully understand the allusion to Ovid. For me, every company today is affected by digital transformation. There is a tendency to focus on the GAFAs, the BATXs, the startups. But in reality, regardless of industry or size, everyone is caught up in the process of digital transformation — and this is why I think it’s important to highlight, through the metamorphosis metaphor, that it concerns all living organisms that must grow up. It also concerns customers! We always forget that customers are transforming too and that they have an impact on corporate transformation. They will either amplify it, accelerate it, or even trigger it — but either way, everyone is affected by this transformation.

Metamorphosis also evokes the idea of a human-machine hybrid. What do you make of that?

Benoit Anger. I believe in humans enriched by machines. I’m not referring to transhumanism — the idea of being improved, accelerated, or replaced by machines. I’m talking about evolution and adaptation, not replacement.

If humans have, for example, less memory than a machine, they are conversely more agile and more versatile. So I think it falls to humans to adapt, to change, to evolve in response to digital transformation and technology, focusing on what they do well — or better than a machine. There’s no point competing on what machines do best; a machine will always calculate faster than a human. We need to develop the skills that are indispensable in the 21^st century. A Financial Times journalist once referred to “ robot-proof skills ” rather than soft skills — in other words, developing competencies that shield us from machine competition. That’s where I come back to calculation, for instance: a machine will always outperform humans in repetitive tasks and rapid computation. If your work is in direct competition with that, you will lose. But if you develop skills that a robot or machine cannot replicate — skills that digital transformation cannot deliver — then humans, by evolving in this direction, will preserve their purpose, their activity, and the existence of their organizations. Humans first!

Do you think the average person is aware today that our world is undergoing a radical metamorphosis — and a digital one at that?

Benoit Anger. Unfortunately not. Most people are not aware of the stakes of digitalization, even if I dislike the phrase “average person” — because for me, in digital transformation, there are no gods and mortals. But I think that broadly speaking, many people are not aware of the impact of digital transformation, or they see it only through the lens of fears about artificial intelligence, robots, and the prospect of losing their jobs. The paradox of digital transformation is that when you survey companies, they are all convinced it is a source of growth. They all say, “great, we need to transform because it will help us withstand new competition that is emerging, and above all it will accelerate our growth and development — so it’s a good thing.” But ultimately, how many actually take the plunge? Very few. An EY study published earlier in the year found that only 5% of companies considered their digital transformation complete — which is remarkably low. I believe more than half considered they hadn’t even started the transformation process yet. There is this paradox where organizations are aware of the need for transformation and its benefits, but as long as they aren’t forced against a wall, they don’t act. And when that moment comes, it’s too late.

How can a company be helped through its digital metamorphosis?

Benoit Anger. I see two axes:

–       The first is a triangle I would call: strategy, culture, technology.

With “Strategy,” I’m really talking about meaning. It’s about articulating a vision, explaining where you’re headed, having a clear strategy and being able to communicate it. If you’re not able to define where you want to go, transforming for transformation’s sake achieves nothing.

“Culture”: Once you have your strategy, you move on to people culture. The idea is to help employees get on board with the transformation process — to help them take ownership of it.

With “ technology ”, I’m not talking about tech for tech’s sake — although digital transformation by definition involves technological evolutions. This dimension comes third for me, because what matters most is strategy, vision, and people, and then what technologies you use to reach the goals you’ve set. That is, in 3^rd position.

–       The 2^nd axis is “ data culture ”. This axis is complex, because today not everyone collects data in their operations, and even those who do often don’t know how to leverage it. Data is a thorny subject: you don’t know where you stand, yet in digital transformation it is absolutely central.

In my field — communications and marketing — the digitalized environment, the transformation of activities, and the efficiency that digital enables naturally impose themselves.

The perennial risk in communications and marketing is doing “digital for the sake of digital,” when the real goal isn’t to say “we went digital” — it’s to make your brand better known and more visible, and to improve the customer experience, for example.

As for higher education, it is genuinely shaped by transformation. Startups are emerging and positioning themselves in education; there are EdTechs, and the GAFAs periodically start placing their pieces on the education board. At a major business school like NEOMA Business School, we know we will have to evolve. And students have expectations around how they access knowledge that are very different from what we experienced as students. Today, you can have instant access to knowledge via the internet. And students clearly no longer want to sit for three hours in a lecture hall listening to a professor. All of this shapes how we teach.

And let’s not forget that we are increasingly training young people for jobs that don’t yet exist! We have thus shifted from teaching knowledge to teaching competencies — those soft skills such as creativity, collaborative working, the ability to sort through data because there is so much of it. Working in groups.

If we don’t transform ourselves — first under the pressure of the population we welcome, but also under the pressure of these unknown jobs and the need to adapt our students to the labor market — we will no longer fulfill our mission, which is the transmission of knowledge.

If you had just one piece of advice to give companies, what would it be?

Benoit Anger. My ultimate advice is truly about meaning — what I refer to in the triangle alongside “culture and people.” I don’t believe in a successful digital transformation process if no one knows where they are going. If you walk in and tell your teams, “we’re going to transform because we have to, or because our competitor is doing it,” it will never work. And everyone is involved in transformation — it’s not just three people transforming and somehow making the whole organization transform.

In higher education, it is essential that we ensure the young people we train are as well prepared as possible for what they will experience. The ultimate goal of our school is not for them to find a job — it is for them to be able to adapt and bounce back according to their ambitions as their careers unfold, to pursue the jobs they love, even if that love lasts only three years before they want to change direction; that’s not the issue. What matters most is that they are happy in what they do, that they thrive in their work, and that they have the capacity to reinvent themselves.