Digital Transformation is selling, but it's not working!

“Haitham… listen to me, digital transformation is great but it doesn’t work”

This was the conclusion of the conversation with my friend who is a business development director for a large veterinary services organization.

He had a governance meeting with the ministry of climate change & environment and representatives of other companies within the same field of industry where they discussed the new changes in the services offered by the ministry since they are moving towards digitizing their business process in such all companies will have to submit their requests and inquiries electronically.

As you probably expect, such a change didn’t sound pleasing to some parties.

My friend agreed that this process is a good step forward, but it is not working.

“The process is slower now and rather than getting things done on the spot, you have to fill the same paper, scan it, submit it through email and wait for two days or more until you receive a notification to collect it. And if there is no reply you have to send an email asking for a response.” He said.

I clarified that these organizations are taking great steps but they are failing to apply it the right way. The whole process needs a well-established strategy to change the entire business process if not even their business model to make it work… in such case and many other cases, they fail to do so.

He went ranting for another few minutes about the old dumb model that became even dumber changing the whole process just by converting it to electronic.

Once he finished talking about the whole “supposedly new” model I told him it is a Digital transformation strategy the smart government is working on.

And this was the turning point of his life where he was introduced to the term “Digital Transformation”.

He looked at me the same way a father hears “Dada” for the first time and said: “Man! This is the best name for such a thing, I wish you were there to spit it out and back up my argument”.

I replied: “Well, this is the term used in the IT business industry. In fact, this is my job subtitle; I help corporates transform their businesses to go digital. But you don’t let me speak as much as I listen to you every time!”

No doubt he was newly introduced to the term when it was 2017. As professionals working in the IT industry, we are living the world within our own dimension. The same applies to other industries. Let’s say a modern surgeon started talking about executing operations remotely, we might imagine someone like Professor X from X-men using his telepathic mind-control doing it!

(The technology is called Telesurgery where a doctor in Abu Dhabi can operate a surgery in Toronto remotely controlling robotic arms. Cool right? I bet you raised your eyebrows).

As an IT solutions sales consultant or professional. How good do you think you are in digital technology? Can you define AI, IoT or Blockchain?

If ‘Yes’, Good. Now can you explain it to your grandfather or even your parents?

This is the first thing you have to consider when explaining technology to a non-technical.

Do people want their work to be easier using technology? Yes. Are they ready? No.

So how could solutions sales professionals and consultants be able to take decision makers to go-digital and transform their whole business?!

As it might sound crazy as it is. Any solutions sales professional knows the importance of using the consultative selling approach in this situation. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as waving a magic wand. Such a process requires proper in-depth study and analysis.

As digital offerings from established competitors and startups alike threaten to disrupt every existing company, there’s pressure from customers, employees, and stakeholder to adopt a digital-first mentality. In a recent study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, 59% of executives worldwide cite hyperconnectivity (a sharp term refers to the connectivity of mobile technology, internet and IoT) as an imperative for keeping pace with changing market demands, while 69% claim that considerable risk and lost opportunities are on the horizon if they do not adapt. And for good reason: Even 40% of the Fortune 500 are expected to no longer exist if they do not evolve soon.

While many organizations have already embarked on transformation, others are struggling to get off the ground. According to a report by Deloitte; Even though 87% of companies believe digital will disrupt their industry, only 44% are adequately prepared for projected disruption due to digital trends.

So what could hold such decision makers to take this crucial decision?!

Since they are humans (until the moment… and in the future hopefully) they behave according to their basic human instinct and past experience. 

Metathesiophobia and Xenophobia (the fear of change and the fear of the unknown respectively) are both interchangeable type of phobias that halt our mind from taking risks and go through a venture with unknown consequences. Factors like lack of knowledge, improper strategy and unclear ROI from investing in Digital Transformation would hinder any endeavors to adopt such transformation and gain acceptance from stakeholders, CXO’s, Mid-managers or even employees.

So it’s about CULTURE, and in our case of going digital, it’s the responsibility of the whole company to embrace the digital transformation culture, in other words: adopt a digital-first mentality. Such a change requires transformational leaders both internal and external to take the initiative.

In their famous book ‘SWITCH: How to change things when change is hard’ Chip & Dan Heath highlighted the importance of leaders who are capable of piloting the change and provide guidance.

“ Clarity dissolves resistance”

is the best sentence to describe the best action needed to kick-start the digital transformation process in any thriving corporate. This huge step needs both internal leaders within the corporate (influencers who aim to change the status quo) and external ones (Advisors, consultant & solution providers).

“Change is much easier when you know where you are going and why it’s worth it”

In the upcoming article, I will underline some crucial responsibilities solutions providers have to consider when driving the digital transformation journey for their customers rather than just sell... sell... sell and close the target.

You might contact me directly for any further information and advice on the topic. I will be more than happy to help.

You have other opinions? just drop it in the comments section.