Digital Disruption Is Business Leaders’ No. 1 Challenge Today

Jennifer Morgan, President of SAP North America, Inc., considers the pace of digital disruption to be the most pressing challenge. According to Morgan, things “have never moved as fast and they’ll never move this slow again. No one is immune,” she told Fortune editor Alan Murray recently. Engagement and trust round out the top three issues.

While nearly every industry is being disrupted by digital technology today, Accenture chose to write an entire report on the post and parcel industry, and for good reason. What’s unique about this category is the transformation of ‘final mile delivery,’ which affects every company whose product ultimately reaches the consumer. “The last mile is under attack,” said Brody Buhler, Global Managing Director Accenture Post and Parcel.

There are opportunities for all companies to evaluate the methods they use for delivery of products, contracts, communications — anything and everything that gets delivered to a client or a partner. Companies should be looking for ways to eliminate paper, streamline deliveries, and deliver faster, better and cheaper.

However, by adopting mobile and analytics, companies in this sector are turning their attention away from cost-cutting and focusing on investments that generate revenue. For example, high performers are successfully slowing the decline of mail volumes and actually growing marketing mail volume in some locations through innovative practices. They combine digital with physical to create new marketing solutions that have a measurable return on investment, Accenture said.

Other than the usual suspects, which include picking up a delivery load for the return trip or aligning with a partner to make join delivers, how can your company generate revenue through your delivery mechanisms?

Are you experimenting with drones? If not, should you be?

Take this opportunity to bring the question up at a Board or executive team meeting. When it’s working well, your delivery strategy is one of those sleepy capabilities that runs itself and doesn’t get any attention. Now may be a good time to devote some attention to an area that could provide new opportunities.