Academic Digital Transformation Strategy
GreenStride Transformation Roadmap
A digital transformation roadmap moving a sustainable footwear brand from product-based advantage to capability-based advantage.
Fictional teaching case completed as part of Master in Management coursework. Recommendations demonstrate strategic analysis and are not claimed as commercial outcomes.
- Business question
- What should a wholesale-dependent brand do when it owns the product but not the customer relationship?
- Role
- Digital transformation · Capability assessment · Roadmapping
- Evidence
- Fictional teaching case: a three-phase capability roadmap built on Rogers' (2016) digital transformation framework.
A Master in Management digital transformation roadmap moving a premium sustainable footwear brand from product-based advantage to capability-based advantage using Rogers' framework.
01
Context
GreenStride is a B Corp-certified premium sustainable footwear business with vegan-certified lines, a materials lab, roughly 5% share of the U.S.
Read context
GreenStride is a B Corp-certified premium sustainable footwear business with vegan-certified lines, a materials lab, roughly 5% share of the U.S. East Coast market and capacity for 500,000 pairs. By traditional measures it looks healthy.
02
Problem
96% of revenue comes through wholesale partners.
Read problem
96% of revenue comes through wholesale partners. That model delegates the customer relationship, the behavioural data and the long-term loyalty to intermediaries, while competitors compound first-party customer intelligence year after year.
There is no D2C channel, no customer data, no digital marketing capability, no analytics infrastructure and a website that has not been updated in eighteen months.
Great products. No idea who is buying them.
03
My role
Sole author of the report for the Digital Transformation for Business module, Master in Management, Maastricht School of Management (June 2026).
Read my role
Sole author of the report for the Digital Transformation for Business module, Master in Management, Maastricht School of Management (June 2026).
04
Approach
David Rogers' (2016) digital transformation framework is used as a diagnostic lens.
Read approach
David Rogers' (2016) digital transformation framework is used as a diagnostic lens. The self-assessment scores GreenStride at 1–2 out of 7 across customers, marketing logic, brand advocacy, competition and cooperation, value creation, value proposition definition and performance metrics.
The reading of those scores is the argument of the paper: the gap is organisational capability, not technology.
- 01Customer Network Strategy Generator
- 02Data Value Generator
- 03Convergent and divergent experimentation
- 04Rogers' disruption diagnostic
05
Solution
A three-phase capability roadmap (foundation, growth, then transformation) targeting 25% D2C revenue, with organisational agility and performance metrics rebuilt alongside the channel rather than after it.
Read solution
A three-phase capability roadmap (foundation, growth, then transformation) targeting 25% D2C revenue, with organisational agility and performance metrics rebuilt alongside the channel rather than after it.
06
Diagnostic call
The aggregator threat is tested against Rogers' disruption criteria and fails the first part, so it is strong competition and an intermediation threat rather than true disruption.
Read diagnostic call
The aggregator threat is tested against Rogers' disruption criteria and fails the first part, so it is strong competition and an intermediation threat rather than true disruption.
- AlternativesTreat discovery-layer aggregators as a disruptive threat requiring a defensive programme, or as strong competition inside the existing model.
- What the evidence pointed toRogers' disruption criteria are not met; the wholesale model, not the product, is what surrenders the customer relationship and the data.
- DecisionBuild direct customer relationships and first-party data capability quickly, rather than mount a disruptive-response programme.
07
Current status
Academic project · Master in Management, Maastricht School of Management (June 2026).
- Verified
- The capability diagnosis and three-phase roadmap were completed for a fictional teaching case using Rogers' framework.
- What remains untested
- The recommendations were not implemented, and the proposed D2C target is not a commercial result.
- Learning / next step
- In a real organisation, baseline customer-data capability and direct-channel experiments would need testing before roadmap investment.
Focus areas
- Rogers (2016) digital transformation framework as diagnostic lens
- Wholesale dependency reframed as a data and capability risk
- Customer Network Strategy Generator and Data Value Generator
- Convergent and divergent experimentation design
- Three-phase roadmap to 25% D2C revenue
- Disruption vs strong competition test on aggregator threat