Demystifying Digital Leaders

Digital disruptions are impacting every kind of job and company in the world of business today. They are highly transformative, changing everything from product design, manufacturing to distribution, delivery and servicing. Digitization is compelling CEOs to rethink execution, business processes, management practices, information systems and customer relationships. It figures prominently on the agendas of corporate boards and has become an integral component of a CEOs’ strategic plans. There is no room for inertia on this front as digitization accelerates profitability, improves customer satisfaction and spikes speed-to-market.

In fact, a Harvard Business School study shows that leading digital companies are steaming ahead mopping up better gross margins, earnings and net income than organizations not adopting digital. Digital companies post a three-year average gross margin of 55 per cent, compared to 33 per cent for digital laggards, the study adds. However, companies who are embracing digital transformation, require strong ‘digital leaders’ to drive this journey and galvanize employees to their way of thinking.   

Who is this class of digital leaders? It refers to any executive who is tasked with putting into practice the digital ambition of his or her company or business unit. They are the ones who are most at ease with technology for starters. Digitally literate, they are most adept with all workplace applications. Yet, these leaders realize that digital is not just mobile, big data or the application of cloud technology and analytics. Neither is it about implementing cybersecurity. It is more about a mind-set and an ethos that has to pervade every section of an organization. It involves everything from the way business problems are solved to giving a special customer experience. Therefore, the ambit of digitization is indeed all-encompassing. 

The Agile Digital Leader

So, digital leaders have to delve deep and step up their business to suit a transforming business environment. Besides being at home with technology, digital leaders need to have a few core competencies. Agility is a critical quality for digital leaders. It is not just about being able to think on one’s feet. Agile leaders are generally risk-takers, they don’t shy away from taking risks. This means that they must create an environment in which employees learn from their mistakes and are not afraid to innovate. They are resourceful, reflective, learn fast and ask ‘why’ rather than how and when. Time taken to roll out workable solutions is minimal with such leaders because they don’t procrastinate about taking decisions. They are adaptable, manage ambiguity and are nimble learners.

Korn Ferry, an American management consultancy firm, terms this trait in digital leaders as “learning agility”. They have extended the meaning to include the ability to apply past lessons to new and first-time situations. This kind of digital leaders also believe failing helps in learning fast, a concept alien in corporate situations. They are also known to thrive in a world of trial and error. They are more in the real world, preferring to test an idea on real users/customers rather than spend days or weeks thrashing out the validity of a concept in meetings. Time is spent wisely and productively.

Digital leaders also require another competency: they must think in a horizontal fashion not vertical. They must not create vertical blocks and not compartmentalize departments. These leaders must think beyond HR, finance and how to create value horizontally for customer experience and benefit. They must believe in continuous integration for a meaningful outcome and stay focussed on creating value and experience for customers. 

Completely at ease with Big Data, this class of leaders are constantly interpreting research, facts and analytics to arrive at business decisions. While they are practiced in extracting insights from quantitative data, they are also experts in analysing qualitative data – such as text, images and videos – before taking a business decision. Besides, these leaders are completely in sync with market realities and they have a pulse on the thinking of vendors, competition, employees etc. Therefore, they bring on-the-ground, domain knowledge combined with a qualitative, contextual approach to deciphering Big Data, before making decisions. Contributing this qualitative, extra-dimensional slant to interpreting volumes of data, is known as ‘Thick Data’ and will act as the big differentiator in decision-making for digital leaders.

A Mission to Accomplish

This emerging group of digital leaders have to move their organizations forward and rally everyone around digitization. Their path is certainly not the easiest because the transformation involves creating and communicating a compelling digital strategy and modifications to organizational structures, systems and processes. The mix of requisite skills for digital leaders may not be the same for every company but the skills listed above can enable a leader to make fundamental changes in organization, governance, capabilities, business processes, underlying technology architecture and culture. Finally, true digital leadership is the ability to guide a company through these changes, all the while keeping an eye on the big picture. They are fully cognizant of the fact that it is a critical mission they need to accomplish to stay relevant and in the race. In the end, I would just like to reiterate that strong leadership is only the beginning. If digital leaders need to push forward they have to focus on changing their organizational structures and corporate culture, keeping it aligned with the digital era.