Does your organization have a digital transformation strategy yet? Digital mavens like and Airbnb are transforming traditional industries such as transport and hospitality, and incumbents across industries are being challenged by creative, digitally-enabled upstarts.

In 2017, digital business transformation has become a necessity. It is driven by sweeping changes all around us – from both customer and employee expectations to a highly competitive landscape with disruption as a constant.

According to a Harvard Business Review study, sponsored by Red Hat, digital leaders are more like to enjoy revenue growth of over 10%, and a profit margin higher than the industry average. Led by digitally proficient leaders across multiple levels in their organizations, they are characteristically guided by a clearly defined digital vision and strategy.

Here are seven steps to a successful digital business:

Step 1: Formulate your digital strategy

Step 2: Make people as important as technology

Step 3: Transform legacy architecture

Step 4: Modernize legacy processes and attitudes

Step 5: Use mobile as a catalyst

Step 6: Harness the power of application programming interfaces (APIs)

Step 7: Stay secure

For optimum results, your organization may need to rethink its existing software architecture, technologies, development methodologies, business processes, and roles and responsibilities. It pays to remember that digital is a strategy, not just a tactic and that it should involve lasting cultural and technological change.

Digital transformation doesn’t have to be revolutionary or disruptive, it can be evolutionary, incremental and iterative, too. Whether you’re still sitting on the fence or well on the road to digital success, Red Hat has developed a handbook to help fast-track or refine your digitalization strategy. Dive in now to get started.