Industrial Implementation of Digital Platforms: Strategizing Risks

Abstract

Even under the current foreign sanctions and external restrictions, Russia’s economic policy is aimed at industrial innovations. However, the ongoing digital transformation remains a serious challenge for timber enterprises: in fact, this industry demonstrates one of the lowest rates of digitalization. Digital transformation has both strategic advantages and strategic risks for such enterprises. If major business fails to consider these risks, the outcome can have long-term negative consequences. Effective strategizing of industrial enterprises needs special methods to identify, describe, and analyze strategic risks. The authors identified the strategic risks of digital transformation and summarized tools that could help timber and forestry enterprises to overcome them. The research relied on the theory and methodology of strategizing developed by Professor V.L. Kvint. According to this approach, a strategy does not identify problems: its main purpose is to identify opportunities, and opportunities always come with risks. The analysis systematized the general and specific features of ERP-systems and digital platforms as key elements of digital transformation. The article introduces opportunities and risks of digital transformation for timber industry enterprises, which must be taken into account by strategists. It also describes an automated process management model as a means of overcoming the risks.