The “d-word” is coming up everywhere. Threat or opportunity?

After 20+ amazing years leading IT Governance and Change management during business growth, transformation and M&A in multinational companies I had the privilege not only to shape new business opportunities for my CEOs but also to see the outcome of the innovation I've brought within my companies and clients.

The ability to understand the value drivers of the Company’s Business, to recognize how to successfully position IT, to broaden its capabilities to drive the business forward while sensing new technologies should be the standard approach for any IT leader. It’s the process by which you can harness the capabilities and advances of emerging technologies to transform and reinvent culture, people, operations, products, marketing and finally support the company to achieve future growth.

Threat or opportunity?

CEOs and Executives might feel overwhelmed by all this talking and noise about innovation and digital transformation and sometimes they’re mistakenly influenced. For the most part, the focus of those interested remains fixated on new technology, wonderful digital solutions and amazing business cases presented by vendors or consultants rather than on the people and teams responsible for implementing and adopting them. 

During my time within my former employer, the CEO was so fascinated by some of the solutions presented by a consultancy company that he would have loved to adopt them immediately. But as much as the “digital” gets thrown around, many Executives may still lack an understanding of what it means to transform their company - and what that transformation will require. 

Just name it.

Cloud, Workplace & Mobility, Digital Channels, advanced CRM systems, Big Data, Analytics, Fintech, Cyber Security, Blockchain, AI, IoT, Industry 4.0, etc.

Put all of this together and you realize it’s being hyped everywhere by any media. And it’s accelerating. But how do we make sense of it? How do we pull all of these threads together and figure out how to create value out of this? It takes an intentional, informed effort to drive business evolution and the digital modernization inside your company. Still, many are unsure of how to start the process, or how much money and time spend on it or even what it entails. Others are driven by old assumptions, keep quiet, trying to ignore what's going on around them. Which is understandable considering the challenges business face to accept, introduce and adopt such elements inside the company.

Culture comes first

There is no easy prescription for change but culture is often overlooked, most misunderstood, yet the most important element of transformation in the traditional business innovation arena and it’s becoming more critical when it takes to the digital transformation. It’s about the ability of the organization, and therefore people’s minds not only to adapt to change but to drive change and innovation, enabling the organization to deep dive into its need, values, purpose and mission. Culture is the operating system of your business: most probably you can try to change your processes, your infrastructure, and even the technology you daily use but if you don’t address the people behind your company then change can’t thrive.

The human element

Digital transformation requires more than just new technology. Recruiting new digital talent and the transformation team across the business, ensuring that the right people, with the right skills, are secured for the right roles is the lifeline that companies need to make transformation possible. You cannot always count on internal people that most probably are stuck in between their comfort zone and the fear to embrace something new and never tried before.

A vast chunk of my work involved inspiring the right internal talents to provide drive, passion, understanding and recruiting external people with cutting-edge skills. You need people who see and do things differently, with an entrepreneurial mindset bringing new energy and perspectives to the workplace, evolving wherever necessary to make progress.

Executives skill-set & behavior

Businesses are blending tech, data, marketing and business strategy to drive competitive advantage, which finally defines new ways of doing business, differentiate and achieve growth. There’s a need for more data-driven, tech-savvy and quantitative-minded Executives, as well as creativity and strategic thinking in your company. Therefore having digital skills is not something optional for those whose task is business leadership to take advantage of the possibilities that the digital world offers. You must also consider that the whole variety of Executives need to collaborate and break down silos as opposed to create a power struggle and being locked in their own departments. Unfortunately this kind of partnership is rarely leveraged to unleash its potential.

Almost 10 years ago I started working to build bridges between my IT Department and the Chief Marketing Officer. The liaison we both created led to an outstanding advantage especially since there was so much crossover in key roles, such as user-experience professionals, web designers, mobile application developers, CRM data analysis. The on-going dialogue between the two groups unleashed creative ideas supported by quick wins and flexible technical solutions. I did not miss any further opportunities to adopt the same approach because of the trust and rapport I had built with the Marketing but also with the whole business.

Inevitably, all facets of the company must work together under a common vision and aspiration if it is to turn digitalization into a foundation for future success. No matter which is the maturity level of digital transformation in your company, set a clear goal for the future then set a strategy based on that vision. Much more than in the past Executive Directors have to demonstrate that they've got the wisdom, the conviction and the vision to direct things, rather than just run the business in the most traditional way. Today's leadership roles require to evolve towards the ability to deal with initial intangible benefits, prioritizing initiatives without an apparent return on investment and a particular ability to see clear patterns in a sea of ambiguity.

One thing is for certain: today's world outside isn’t going to wait for you.

The digital challenge has to be accepted, even if only to improve efficiency, work smarter and stay competitive. It's a great opportunity to open up potential new value, but if you and your organization don't react quickly and properly it will become a threat very soon.