How Twining Culture with Technology Can Sparkle Digital Transformation
Published on : Tuesday 02-11-2021
The promises of digital transformation are aplenty but to be successful, organisations need to take measured steps.
Imagine yourself in the shoes of a CEO. Your enterprise is pulling all stops to catch up with your peers and go the scale and distance on digital. Then, a multi-million dollar proposal for digital transformation lands up on your desk. You pore over the papers, consult your senior pros, brainstorm on it and yet not arrive at a definitive outcome. On how to successfully execute the plan and mine the gains later. Don’t feel disconsolate. You aren’t a lone ranger in this journey of disruption. Gartner estimates that around 50 per cent of the CEOs have no metric for digital transformation. In the absence of ample forethought from the top leadership, it doesn’t go afar. According to Forbes, 70 per cent of digital transformation projects fail. What does it show? Digital transformation, the buzzword that it is, goes beyond technological underpinnings. It’s as much a cultural transformation where strategy and people-first leadership are needed to make the most from emerging technologies.
Going digital – The new staple for businesses
Organisations had initiated baby steps to digital transformation even before Covid-19. But the pandemic has sped up the timeline to the transformation. The transition that could have spanned three to four years is now happening in months. We are living in an age where the pairing of digital and technology are par for the course. For nimble enterprises, diving into the pool of digital transformation is not just a top priority at boardrooms but a robust toolkit to jump ahead of the curve.
In the next normal, businesses are destined to go digital for survival. As per forecasts by International Data Corporation (IDC), 65 per cent of the world’s GDP is set to be digitised by 2022. Moreover, between 2020 and 2023, the world will see direct digital transformation investments of $6.8 trillion. But why do businesses need to go digital? Typically, the adoption of digital happens due to novelty, necessity, or natural affinity. In the same vein, to unlock the full benefits of investments in digital, organisations need to imbibe ‘digital culture’.
Injecting digital culture for transformation
Having a digital culture is all about adapting to new challenges and having a workforce that can do so, and not falling behind. Your existing organisational culture might not be fully compatible with the digital culture that rests on four pillars – collaboration, innovation, data-driven insights and customer-centricity. Digital culture can help companies stay competitive by:
i. Achieving an adaptable, tech-enabled workforce able to perform and collaborate from anywhere
ii. Innovation through tech and data-enabled delivery channels and business models
iii. Providing employees with not just the right tools but the right structures, incentives, and mindsets to adopt new technologies, and
iv. Drive decisions and strategy with accurate and holistic impact data, transform your business through innovation, and engage your stakeholders with integrated initiatives that have a real impact.
Digital ready strategy
With immersive technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Internet of Things (IoT) and a creative approach to problem-solving, digital transformation services can be implemented for any enterprise. It is true that ‘one coat fit all’ formula doesn’t click. Each enterprise has its own set of challenges in going digital. Taking a deep dive into the enterprise ecosystem, landscape and challenges will help in making the best digital-ready strategy. A Digital Transformation service bucket can have a multitude of offerings:
1. Innovative digital products & services
2. Intelligent, insightful data-driven operations
3. Efficient core processes
4. Agility in bi-modal IT change transformation
5. Optimised omni-channel, experience-driven user engagement
6. Connected stakeholders
7. Cloud-based operations
8. Dashboard and metrics
9. RoI analytics.
The digital transformation framework begins with crafting the 'digital strategy' for any enterprise. For organisations to achieve fast impact, it is strongly recommended to embrace the culture of prototyping, testing, learning, and iterating in order to keep cross-functional teams continuously motivated.
Going forward, digital transformation will see more experiments in the crucible of emerging technologies. The XaaS (Everything as a Service) approach is slated to dominate in-house solutions as companies will look to cloud-based, third-party applications and services to do the work for them, rather than upskilling current employees. Digital transformation is an epoch in time-honoured transition. The promises are aplenty but to be successful, organisations need to take measured steps. To cut the long story short, we don’t bite off more than we can chew.
Article Courtesy: NASSCOM Community – an open knowledge sharing platform for the Indian technology industry:
https://community.nasscom.in/communities/digital-transformation/how-twining-culture-technology-can-sparkle-digital
