Are Australia’s boards ready for digital transformation?

“Are Australia’s boards ready for the next decade?”

It’s a question I was asked recently by a journalist, and it prompted me to reflect on my many conversations with board members—in both the public and private sectors—over the last year.?

Before the pandemic,?the?Australian market had by and large been stable for some time.?

But the events of the last year and a half have quickly forced many business leaders out of their comfort zone.

And it’s not just because of the flux in their local situation. Globally, markets are shifting dramatically, and Australia needs to move quickly to maintain its competitive advantage.?

Without serious investment into new technologies,?we’ll soon see ramifications on our own economy.

It’s time to shift our thinking

On the one hand, we’re lucky.?

We’re a wealthy, well-educated nation that attracts great talent (when borders open again!), with rich mining assets and lots of space.

But, on the other hand, we don't have a lot of population for that space.

So, we need to think differently.

And we can start by asking ourselves the big questions—like how?we’re?going to take the advantage of our current assets, so future generations reap the benefits.?

I believe our goal should be digital transformation—a technological revolution so the next big Australian businesses can compete on the global stage.

And instead of relying on the same old sectors of the economy that have supported it for so long, we should be asking ourselves these questions right now.?

Digital transformation: a long-term opportunity

I firmly believe?more?businesses are starting to realise that long-term organisational risk—and opportunity—will be defined by how they invest in new technology.

Boards around the country are already making more of an effort, and it’s critical that as they do, they ask the right questions.

Questions like, ‘How do we?understand?digital transformation, data, customer experience and human-centred design more effectively, and synonymously?’. And ‘How do we develop and invest in?the kind?of people who can view that at a systems level?’.

It's no longer about trying to extract value out of old processes and systems that businesses have been relying on for some time.

We need to realise?how much longer that model will work. And from what I’m seeing—at a national and global scale—I predict not too long.?

We need to do something radical.?

By Mark Cameron