Digital transformation, why you should disrupt something that is already working

There is this saying in the back of my head that goes something like “if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it”. I have heard it so many times that it is fixed there, and when I want to do something new, or think “outside the box”, whatever the box is, I have to fight it. Resist it.

I read and listen to news about digital marketing, shared economy, digital this and that, all the time, and sometimes tend to forget there are industries, like the food industry, that make tons of money by growing “stuff”, you know, on soil. 

Companies dominate many of these industries with almost no competition in local markets. Nicaragua, for example, where I come from. So, what are the drivers for a company that makes huge profits and have almost total dominance in a local market to invest in a digital transformation?

So let me give you some examples on how and why to disrupt something that works:

Information

A digital disruption is only effective if it is lead by strategy, not technology. Don’t take my word for it, a MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte article explains it better. “The ability to digitally reimagine the business is determined in large part by a clear digital strategy supported by leaders who foster a culture able to change and invent the new.” 

Companies generate a lot of information on supplies, distribution, sells, customer satisfaction, costs of production (say for example, energy consumption), and much more. Imagine all this information fueling a real-time KPIs system.

The potential to generate information is enormous. Think about IoT (Internet of Things), and how devices can communicate to each other and generate more information for your company. You can read this report by Accenture on some of those possibilities.

Knowledge and collaboration

Knowledge Sharing in big and medium organizations is a difficult endeavor, but a vital one. There are many digital systems out there that let employees share and collaborate, or participate in capacity building efforts (courses on safety, for example). But the challenge is to design an experience that engage and empower the users (employees), to realize the potential of those systems, and to accomplish their professional goals. 

Integrating a digital system without thinking about the experience of the user would probably lead to an intranet or a virtual course that no one would ever use.

Research and Development

It seems there is something new everyday: Artificial Intelligence, 3D printing, Virtual Reality, drones, IoT, big data, PaaS, and the list goes on. It would be impossible (and ineffective) to make investments in all of them.

But if you want to get ahead and “predict the future”, you could invest in research and prototype possible applications of a specific technology in your company, let’s say, Messenger bots, test with customers and make a business case on the benefits of investing more resources on it (or not). By the way, if you don’t know what that is, it’s okay, but that doesn’t mean you should wait for one more year until you read it in your news feed. You can read how Rogers Communications is using it for customer service.