Staying ahead of digital threats

The phenomenon of major industry shakeouts isn’t new, at all. Well before digital, we saw industry disruptions in the past in 3 major industrial revolutions. The only difference now is that digital industry is causing such disruptions to happen faster and more frequently. 

What business leaders tend to do when they see a level of uncertainty and vague ROI is to observe for a while, letting others incur the costs of experimentation and only start moving as the dust settle, which is a process that takes few years. While I do agree with the approach in many cases, yet for the industrial digitalization I have a different opinion; 

The digital industry tends to give the big reward to the first movers and fast followers, the pace of change in this industry is extremely fast, so the idea of waiting for few years to observe and then start to react will not be very wise, as you will miss the opportunity that your competition might benefit from, leaving you many steps behind. This does not mean that I encourage companies to make major digital investments blindly or just follow latest trends without ensuring ROI, the truth is the complete opposite; 

I do believe that the best option is to start moving slowly, but surely! 

Is moving in steps even possible in the digital industry? Can I start a digital journey without making a 7 figure investment day one? The answer is a “Straight YES” 

A roadmap in the range of 3-5 years should allow any company to take the right steps and make sure they get the right return on investment by addressing very specific use cases, and have enough time to drive the right change management in the organization to adapt the new technology. I usually use the following 6 steps to design a digital roadmap with my clients;

1- Define use cases 

Before you start your company journey, you need to understand “why” are you doing that, and what are the possible benefits. You should never implement a digital project to have nice screens with no content.

2- Understand Available Technologies

The market today has endless possibilities, different technologies, and amazing alternatives. You need to spare some time to shortlist the main technologies that you will benefit from in the identified use cases with the help of your digitalization partner, and start studying the pros and cons of each.

3- Create your own light house 

One of the things I like about many of the new available technologies is that they are very modular, you can always start with few modules/functionalities, and expand as you go. 

Use these modular technologies to create a pilot area, and involve your influential leaders on the production floor in a proof of concept. The positive results from the PoC will help engage your employees and different stakeholders throughout the journey, and minimize the expected resistance.

4- Set Ambitious targets 

Once you are clear about the technology and the value you can get, this is the right time to start the roll-out. Make sure you set targets for everyone involved, not only the digital team. The targets should be challenging to create the momentum, yet achievable. Also make sure to celebrate success and have more "Digitalization Ambassadors" in your organization.

5- Nurture a digital culture 

Organizations follow the steps of their leaders not their words, make sure the digital is the center of how your organization functions, have it as the main source of your business reviews, employees evaluations, hiring criteria...etc 

6- Scaling Up 

As you complete a successful roll-out, it is now the time to decentralize the digital efforts. Follow a divide and conquer strategy and have your different business functions driving their own needs for digitalization, and choose where to start. During this step the technology team should start to step back, and focus only on providing support and orchestrating the whole journey.

A closing thought, the word “Digital Transformation” usually gives an indication that it’s a technical project. This statement cannot be more far from true. The digital transformation depends in the first place on the processes, way of doing work following the transformation, and the new business model that will be developed or adapted, and the owner of the project should be the business team, with no exceptions. Always consider the Digital as a catalyst for achieving a more ambitious vision and a more rewarding business model.