Fast Forward of Digital Transformation in times of crisis
Now is the right moment and we know it: for companies that were still hesitant or thinking about it, this crisis gave the necessary push to join the league and start their digital transformation. With a worldwide lock-down, Digital became the solution to go to, to avoid the world coming to a complete standstill, and for companies to avoid being left behind or losing their business. All activities had an opportunity to redefine themselves in the digital space, from e-commerce to new ways of working, from cooking to entertainment, from concerts to ballet.
How to leverage what we learned and complete our digital transformation?
Digital transformation has been the talk of the town since the last decade. Words like SAAS, Cloud, Digital Marketing, Open Data and many more are used frequently, circling around the same need: how to transform while embracing digital.
Research shows that more than 70% of companies had a digital transformation project underway prior to the Covid-19 crisis. According to a research from IMD, 79% of the respondents were struggling with digital transformation, mainly the implementation part, and even 95% say that their transformation projects are currently failing to meet the expectations.
Harvard Business Review states that from the $1.3 trillion spent on digital transformation in 2018, an estimated $900 billion was wasted as initiatives did not meet their goals.
Even if they understand the importance of the exercise, due to the negative reputation of digital transformation experiences, of going over budget and never delivering on objectives, many a company has been hesitating to go down that path. The perception that going through a digital transformation is complicated and cumbersome, overwhelms many and makes them walk away from the exercise, as they feel they will not be able to achieve it.
It doesn't have to be so complicated!
With this article, we would like to give you an insight into the process: how to make the digital transformation journey enjoyable and smooth for your company.
Now, as the crisis un-peaks, it is important to know that to be successful in the digital transformation, it is not about doing it, but about being digital. It is a change of mindset.
The aim of digital transformation is to use technology to optimise and automate non-value-added processes, resolve traditional issues, and avoid these to repeat themselves. But the success to a digital transformation is the mindset. Having the mindset means that every employee in the organisation understands the value of the transformation, feels that they are gaining in value and support in their work and contribution, and thus collaborates with the transformation in every area of the business. Digital transformation, when done right, empowers employees to contribute to the company success by bringing a unique value to the customers.
An efficient and productive digital transformation is designed with the customer experience as an objective. Therefore, it should be part of the organisation culture and DNA, driving its structural design, breaking down the traditional silos. Implementing an effective digital environment forces to review the ways of working of an organisation, by bringing fluidity in the communication and sharing of information.
To have the desired impact, digital transformation should be part of the strategy design, with the driving question: how can it optimise this project or simplify the delivery of this service?
When approaching digital transformation with such a mindset, it appears less overwhelming and more manageable.
A concrete model in 10 steps.
To help you in your reflection, we would like to share 10 key steps we have identified, based on our experiences, when going through a digital transformation.
1. Strategy: ensure that digital transformation is a foundation of the organisational strategy and supports the mission and vision. The digital mindset is part of the culture. Gaining the support of the senior management is a key success factor to the implementation.
2. The Customer: before any transformation takes place, it is important for the organisation to transition from a product approach to a customer focus. The digital transformation needs to consider the needs of the internal and external client: the employee and end-user.
3. Leadership: a successful transformation starts with leaders motivating and leading their teams. All leaders need to be supportive of the transformation and have an active role to ensure the delivery of the organisation long-term goals with this transformation.
4. Organisational structure: one of the aims of digital transformation is to deliver a seamless experience to customer, done by having integrated workflows, removing all silos within the organisation.
5. Product, services, and processes transformation: a digital transformation requires a re-think of the way to build and deliver a service or product. Companies who succeed in the transformation have been able to go beyond the mindset “we have always done it this way”, to find innovative, efficient solutions.
6. Technology committee: the transformation will have impact on the whole organisation. To ensure that all needs and concerns are heard and addressed, it is recommended to have a technology committee with a representation from every part of the organisation.
7. Integration: or how to ensure that all the data of the company interact with each other. This is the opportunity to review the existing company data and to do a clean-up and build the storyboard.
8. Internal customers: considering the needs and concerns of the employee is as important as understanding the customer. Including the employee will ensure a positive transformation journey.
9. Data protection, cyber-security and ethics: data protection and ethics need to be gatekeepers to any digital transformation. Protection and adequate sharing of data (personal, business sensitive) needs to become a priority for the organisation as much as compliance.
10. Personalisation: digital transformation is a way of differentiation on the market and to bring a tailor-made service to the customer. It is the opportunity to know its customers and build a unique relationship with him/her.
A client-focused digital transformation exercise is meant to have long-term returns. It needs to be considered as a necessary stop-over in the company journey and not a destination. The push for digitalisation generated by this crisis should be considered as a unique opportunity for the employees, partners, and customers!
Co-authors:
Vindou Duc, CEO of The Nextep, Co-Founder of HR Guides
Frode Hvaring, Chair of the Digital Leadership Lab (GBS), Co-Founder of HR Guides
Talent ☆ Culture ☆ Strategy
4 年Great thoughts Nathalie, and I especially welcome the underlying premise: humanity and balance. Digital is an enabler, not an end, I quite agree with you. As all powerful tools it depends on who is using it. We need to be #balancingdigital, displaying good ethics and consistently building on healthy, lasting human drivers. "Le 21ème siècle sera humaniste ou ne sera pas" said Malraux, let's try exactly that.
Founder & Former Director EBU Academy. Creative Skills Europe Board member
4 年Thanks Frode and Vindou for this brilliant presentation and framework - no suprise coming from you both :) - I quite like the 10 points as a reference for thinking and action. However, I am doubtful about the so called power of ??digital??. I think the transformation of companies is a must, part of the nature of any business. Digital is a tool, a super tool that allows us to work and produce differently, When you say ??how can it optimise this project or simplify the delivery of this service???, digital is not the only reason to change. The pervasiveness of digital has brought great tools but it is giving it too much power to consider it as standalone stakeholder. This, in addition , can raise lots of frustration and wrong expectations. Just a thought! Very best wishes ! N
Very good article, another change management concept, we should not forget that it can only work with the right skills, competencies on board, therefore Gaps Analysis is a must.....for success and realistic expectations
Partner, Technology & Security Strategist, Digital Transformation, External CIO, CISO, DPO, Auditor at Superius
4 年Thank you for sharing this excellent article, Frode. Generic change initiatives come with the grim success rate of 12% - Digital Transformation (DX) at an even more disheartening 5%. Hence there is an element related to technology which complicates things. One of the main challenges is that organizations tend to rely on regular change governance and management practices when setting out on their DX journey, whereas those types of strategies and programs are a different ballgame altogether. To get DX right, the discipline of enterprise-wide technology governance must be coupled together with contemporary change management. A glimpse of how this symbiosis may look like is presented in a separate LI article. Think Big - Start Small - Move Fast!
Head of Processes & Project Management at Assura Development & Marketing
4 年thank you Vindou Duc, MBA and Frode Hvaring for sharing this meaningful article about digital transformation. Companies are often looking at transformation without including end-to-end process review and simplification, organizational impact and change and it leads to failure. It's a real mindset where people are in the center of the transformation.