New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) The Covid catastrophe can fuel India's rise to a digital superpower, says Nitin Seth who has come out with a book that offers, among others, lessons for understanding and winning in the post-pandemic digital age and becoming a 21st century leader.

In "Winning in the Digital Age: Seven Building Blocks of a Successful Digital Transformation", Seth brings in his experience in leadership roles in firms like Mckinsey and Fidelity and Digital natives like Flipkart and Incedo.

He presents insights and practical examples and answers key questions on how enterprises can win in the digital age.

The Covid pandemic and its successive waves have been tremendously tragic for the entire world but from a business perspective, it has not been as disastrous as was feared, he says.

"As for digital adoption, this event has been an accelerant, digital adoption across industries and across different aspects of our lives has been rapidly adopted," he argues.

One of the central ideas of the digital age that he presents in his book, published by Penguin Random House, is the concept of VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous).

"My submission is that VUCA represents the true essence of the digital age. In a bizarre way, the Covid situation is completely VUCA and reinforces a lot of the inherent dynamics of the digital age. It also brings out very clearly that the digital age is not just a technology phenomenon but is reflective of the 21st century world we are living in." Seth told PTI.

He says India has gone through a terrible situation and has had its fair share of disasters but the most remarkable thing about India is its incredible resilience - the ability to bounce back.

"I strongly believe in this digital age, India is very strongly poised to not just take advantage of it, but to potentially emerge as one of the true global superpowers," he says.

"Competition for leadership, democratisation of access to information, knowledge, and technology are what I see as unique key enablers that make India very well positioned to be a leading superpower in the digital age - high smartphone penetration, low cost of data, UID JAM, global IT leadership, and a young demographic profile," he says.

These enabling factors are unique to India and tremendous keys to realising the benefit of the democratisation of access and data brought about by the digital age, Seth says.

Though India is very well placed to achieve digital superpower status, the author is of the opinion that there are four critical areas India can set a firm foundation with a concept called 'digital first' - building core capabilities on digital technology and the new business rules he outlines in the book.

India has an opportunity to leverage for increased success in areas like global IT leadership, innovative global business, digital transformation for conventional industries and enterprises and public services and enterprises, he says.

"All of this is to support and fuel waves of entrepreneurship. I believe this will lead to a virtuous cycle of entrepreneurial growth. A wave of entrepreneurs with innovative new businesses and digital conversion of older industries will fuel the next wave of entrepreneurs, who each reach a higher level and drive the next wave of innovation and growth," he suggests.

About his book, he says there was a need in the market for some work that was more than theories, or projections about the future as others have done, but rather a new, hands-on, field-tested, practitioners' perspective to bring clarity to the complex topic of digital transformation and winning in the digital age.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)