Page - 197 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

to many software vendors. Also, the average gross profit margin from themanu- facturing industry is around 10–15%,16 whereas for the software industry, the median gross profit margin is around 30–40%.17 By analyzing the trend, GE management decided that investing in digital initiatives would be a game-changer for them as it could take the company to the next level of higher profitability and revenue. GE management also realized that GE was an industrial company, and though it had significant software revenues fromdifferent businesses, the culture of the companywas not suitable for a pure-play software company. To transform the business culturally and to transform the company into a digital industrial company by leveraging IIoT, GE decided to create a new business venture, GE Digital in SiliconValley,California, far away from its headquarters inupstateNewYork.GE also launched an advertising campaign, where a recent college graduate (Owen) was breaking the news to his parents and friends that he had joined GE. In one advertisement, Owen’s friends were very excited and in another advertisement, Owen’s father toldOwen that hewas notmacho enough towork for an industrial manufacturing company (Winig 2015). GE wanted to reposition itself to recruit Millennials. As industrial Internet footprints were expanding in GE, the manage- ment decided to create a new role, Chief Digital Officer (CDO), in all GE busi- nesses. TheCDOsof the respective business groups reported to the groupCDOof GE,andhewasalso theCEOofGEDigital.Thismatrix structureallowed theCDO of GE to influence each business in its digital ventures. Since there was a strong strategic focus and intent to transformGEbusinesses digitally, all business CDOs started implementingGE’s digital platform “Predix” as their base digital platform for new businesses. Thus, GE implemented a strong digital culture and developed new business ventures for its different business groups. 5 Conclusion and Implications Emerging digital technologies are disrupting businesses, and companies are increasingly accelerating their corporate digital entrepreneurship initiatives. This is not only true for start-up or small companies but equally important for large organizations as they need to transform their businesses and remain competitive in the market. Managers can develop new business, and operating models by lever- aging digital technologies and comingupwith newproducts are services thatwere not possible earlier.Cultural changes are critical to orchestrating structural changes in theorganization.Aproper sensing strategy is a prerequisite to understanding the internal and external environments for corporate digital entrepreneurship opportu- nities which are influenced by digital technologies. Once opportunities are identi- fied, digital commitment is necessary to support these initiatives by allocating proper resources and implementing suitable operating models to seize those 16https://smallbusiness.chron.com/average-manufacturers-gross-profit-percent-15827.html. 17https://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/the-5-most-profitable-industries-in-the-us.html. 202 S. Ghosh et al.