Either you transform (digitally) or you will be transformed.

Very soon in the future there will be only digital companies. Or rather, everything will have to do with their digital management. Let’s just say that whether to go digital or not won’t be an option; it will be a question of how, when and with whom. In fact, the differentiating factor, the key to success – and in many cases, the very key to survival – will be in the mechanism used to transform. Digital transformation begins with choosing how to start the process, and in most cases, deciding in whose hands we leave this complex transition. Either you do it right and get yourself into the transformation process while the time is right, or you’ll find yourself being forced to transform.

There are many studies that outline and explain methodologies and styles of facing the digitalization of a company. I find this study from MIT listing nine points that summarize the model of digital transformation very interesting. It discusses client understanding, criteria for growth, points of contact with buyers, the digitalization of the production process, training workers, entrepreneurs or directors, new management styles, the transformation of business models, globalization, etc.

The changes that society, companies and their connections are going through are part of what we call the New Economy, which will play the leading role on the world ?s stage in the near future. What is sophisticated, if not dramatic, is the speed at which everything having to do with the digitalization of the economic ecosystem is bursting on the scene.

Either way, observation is the key. Observing these broad and intersecting changes we’re experiencing from the perspective of our current point in time instead of trying to determine (an almost impossible task) what is coming just around the corner. The future is a fog filled with surprises. Who would have thought just a couple of years ago that some social platforms would put untouchable business models in jeopardy? Other elements associated with dozens of apparently inalterable structures a decade ago have now been beaten by their digital “colleagues.”

Not long ago, I wrote about how thanks to my work, I was able to turn a car cemetery into a successful “digital junkyard.” If you’re interested, the story illustrates a “very basic” example of what we’re talking about today in this post.

Have you thought about whether your company, SME or project is successfully preparing itself for the waves seen coming in from the distance? That calm sea that means income and reasonably good returns doesn’t guarantee you to be in a position to navigate when we enter more demanding waters.

When we talk about digitalization, we’re talking about processes and tools. The use of technology can’t just be an anecdote or an accessory that hooks us up to a social network. To talk about digital transformation is to talk about implementing tools, software and operations processes that automatize every aspect of work at a company for the purpose of producing more and better, generating the ideal springboard for the company to become smarter and learn in every moment of every one of the steps taken, that there’s no going back unless it were to gather greater future momentum.

Analog commerce is giving way to ecommerce. It could even stop being something with a physical presence all together. The management of clients, shipments, offers, options, relationships, networks, sales growth factors or whatever else comes to mind, is becoming immensely more fertile with the use of “big data,” whether it’s your own data or acquired by comparison with the competition.

The known business boundaries between client, business, provider and competition are becoming blurry in the digital universe to the point that any one of them stops clearly being any one of those things and many times starts mixing roles. To go digital is to understand and practice that complex fusion of relationships.

The efficiency levels in production that some digital companies have reached are of such quality that hardly a day goes by that we don’t see how “a small startup” has moved ahead of a big company that “does the same thing but slower and more expensive.” That also happens with other types of processes. We have gone from large, slow, heavy companies that have seen how a much smaller company has gotten ahead of them on the same playing field just for having digitalized on time, as well as better and smarter.

Now if you need to transform your company or your business model, you’ll need to know who you are in order to determine which model to follow. Either your company’s DNA is already digital, meaning everything revolves around such things, or you are encumbered by the time it takes you to adapt in order to be able to offer a good catalog of innovative products or digital businesses.

The difference between a digital business and one that has yet to be transformed is that while the former manages time and resources based on disruptive solutions, the latter attempts to hold back inevitable changes.

If you are a business owner, director or someone who is thinking it’s time to transform your business model, you should do it by initially accepting the road will be long, but that you’ve got to start at some point. Everything has an effect and makes an impact faster and like never before, and with total distortion of the value chain and intermediaries involved.

For two decades I’ve helped businesses begin that journey. First, as Interim Manager of some of them, as director of others and finally, as founder of yet others. The latest example in this field, Idodi, which is led by my brother Oscar, is now conducting some of the most interesting digital transformations that I’ve seen, in sectors such as cooking oil, wine, perfumes, restaurants, administration and many more. A consultancy, but with operations capabilities that ensure what you put on paper gets done.

If you want more info, ask me, but keep in mind that either you transform digitally or they will digitalize you by force, and it’s always better if you set the pace yourself by moving forward and getting ahead of the game while you can.