Have marketers come to a crossroads at which they have to decide, once and for all, between scale and survival? It’s a choice that Brian Solis, noted author on tech disruption and principal of Altimeter Group, takes on in a new report called “The Race Against Digital Darwinism: Six Stages of Digital Transformation.” Trying to survive in the digital jungle, companies are not only challenged by upstart predators and sophisticated customers, but they’re also laden with the trappings of process and infrastructure that turned their humble organizations into industry behemoths in the first place.

Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter, said his company hopes these six stages serve as a digital-maturity blueprint to guide companies along their transformations.

“I think the key takeaway for CMOs is going to be that no one company has all of the answers,” Solis told CMO.com. “Another takeaway for the chief marketer is that they have an opportunity to make their role about more than just marketing. CMOs can be experience leaders and drive the future of business. They must show that marketing is now part of experience, and experience is now part of customer engagement, and customer engagement is basically the foundation for any company.”

“Digital transformation isn’t easy but it is among the most effective ways to future proof an organisation while building an infrastructure to be more agile and innovative,” Solis concluded. “But make no mistake, this is the long road, not the short cut. To disrupt markets, you have to start by disrupting yourself.”

You can keep doing business as usual — or you can future-proof your business by becoming agile rather than reactive and customer-centric rather than presumptive.

In short, you can embrace digital transformation, explained digital analyst, speaker and author Brian Solis.

Technology is evolving right before our eyes. The things we have taken for granted, like messaging, are now becoming central in how people converse with businesses. Tech companies like Amazon, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Tesla, and WhatsApp are shaking traditional enterprises to their core. But instead of waving the proverbial white flag, incumbents like Hilton, Comcast, Ford, and others should evolve. A new report by Altimeter Group principal analyst Brian Solis offers a path for becoming “agile, competitive, and innovative” in the changing business landscape.

“That’s the irony about digital transformation, it doesn’t work when in of itself technology is the solution. Technology has to be an enabler and that enabler needs to be aligned with a bigger mission. We already found that companies that lead digital transformation from a more human center actually bring people together in the organization faster and with greater results,” Solis says.

Solis’ definition of digital transformation noted above is from Altimeter Group’s first maturity model for digital transformation, co-authored by Jaimy Szymanski, and in his new report, “The Race Against Digital Darwinism: Six Stages of Digital Transformation,” and it differs from other technology-first approaches.

Solis notes that although digital transformation is one of the most important trends in business, shaping how companies work, market and innovate. Solis identifies the six stages of digital transformation and a maturity model that was developed using extensive collaboration with some of the world’s leading brands.

We live in a time of digital Darwinism, an era in which technology and its impact on business is constant, yet with varying but inevitable degrees of disruption. The evolution plays out differently in each industry and each organization. Digital Darwinism is enriched through changes in people (your customers, employees and stakeholders) and the resulting market advancement. As such, it’s less about the origin of the species and more about its fate.

Solis said that many conversations around digital transformation are focused on the IT side, and technology does play a big role, but there’s a human side of the story and it’s driven by the customer experience.

Digital transformation is driven by the digital customer.