Transformation takes place on four levels. There are different types of quarks for these levels. For the individual and team level, there are transformation quarks, or t.quarks for short, which help to overcome typical blockages. We have the d.quarks for the digital business model level and our r.quarks for the regenerative economy level. The quarks work together on the four levels and enable the organization to achieve digital and sustainable transformation.

There are 11 typical blocks that leaders and teams need to overcome by developing new skills. These 11 blockages are: Disconnection, stagnation, excessive demands, one-dimensionality, lack of perspective, lack of clarity, blindness, mistrust, non-commitment, powerlessness and waste. If you release these blockages by building up new skills, the t.quarks, the corresponding positive energies are released: connection, unfolding, coping, multidimensionality, orientation, clarity, insight, trust, commitment, effectiveness and exhaustion.

There are five archetypes of future-oriented leaders: Futurist, Disruptor, Advocate, Integrator and Transformer. Each of these types is needed in an organization, has a different focus and plays a specific role. The Futurist shapes the vision and embodies it. The Disruptor implements the vision exploratively and experimentally by means of new ideas. The Advocate is on the side of people and nature and represents their needs. These include customers, partners, employees and natural ecosystems. The Integrator builds bridges between fragmented organizational silos and brings them back into an overall picture in the sense of a synergetic network. The Transformer is responsible for and organizes the entire transformation of an organization on all four levels. He or she is the architect of the transformation.

There are five team types in a sustainable organization: Coopetitors, Systemizers, Explorers, Networkers and Emergers. Coopetitors have a balanced relationship between competition and collaboration. The Systemizers focus on creating efficiency and scalability through sensible standardization and automation. The Explorers are concerned with exploring new territory, finding new solutions to new problems and developing and implementing new ideas for products and services. The Networkers form win-win networks by bundling different competencies and integrating them in a value-adding way through co-creation. The Emergers act completely autonomously and self-organized, set their own goals within the framework of the vision and are aware of their impact. They change the culture and structures around them through their actions. New forms of organization emerge naturally from changing circumstances and needs. All these types of teams are needed in a sustainable organization.

A d.quark (digital quark) describes a capability that a company has to organise, procure, develop in order to realise digital business models. It is described along the four strategic dimensions “organisation”, “people & competencies”, “processes” and “technology”. This is the first time that we combine cultural changes with structural changes in the company.

In physics, if you want to study the fundamental interactions of matter and investigate the tiniest structures, you need a particle accelerator. If you let elementary particles – so-called quarks – collide with enormous energy, new, unexpected and surprising things are created again and again.

We have transferred this principle to our transformation work. Because in organisations, too, the targeted “collision” of diverse experiences, competences and disciplines can always produce something new and impressive.

We have given our own name to the elementary building blocks with which people in positions of responsibility can shape the digital transformation themselves: d.quarks – the “digital quarks”.

On the first level, we have identified 46 digital capabilities (d.quarks) along the value chain and certain support functions in the company and described them in our book. Each capability in the d.quarks model occurs only once. They do not overlap with each other and have more than 200 properties.

If the company wants to build an open platform-oriented business model, then yes. Otherwise, it depends on the type of digital business model how many d.quarks are needed for its realisation.

There are five business model types we have described in our d.quarks model as the five accelerator tracks of the d.quarks. These are the five basic archetypes of digital business models, which represent an increasing user-centricity, service-orientation and value creation via data. The five business model types are: technology-enabled, transaction-oriented, customer experience, solution-oriented and Open Digital.

A transformation is only successful if we know why we need to change something. Only then can we convince customers and employees to follow us in the upcoming changes. This is why it is so important to combine capabilities with business models and a strategic ambition level, a positive picture of the future.

No, the d.quarks model can be applied to any company size and it is even industry-agnostic. We have already successfully introduced it to DAX companies as well as to medium-sized and small family businesses.

That depends a little on the size of the company. Usually between three and six months. Then you know your target picture, have developed a digital strategy, know the capabilities (d.quarks) you already have and those you still lack. And, you have a structured, clear work plan, in which projects you build up the missing capabilities and how. In addition to our experience from more than 150 digital transformation projects, we bring with us a wealth of procedures, reference models and architectures as well as methods and transformation tools that have proven themselves best in recent years.

Many owners and managers know that the world around them has changed. They even have their first digital ideas, but they have no idea how to implement them. Often they have already carried out many more or less successful digital projects, but they didn’t have a common framework and thus didn’t really move the company forward. They lack the orientation on how to start the digital transformation in the company. They are therefore uncertain or wait, sometimes for too long. With the d.quarks model, we give them the missing orientation and encourage them to get started.

People often think that the introduction of new technologies or the automation of processes is already everything. But this is only one side of the digital medal. The other side is the culture change.