Every Company Is A Technology Company. Or Is It? (Part 1 of 4)

Like many of you, I too am a technology enthusiast — super impressed by how companies today are using technology in ways that only existed in fiction till about a couple of decades ago! For that matter, even till about a couple of years ago!

Airbnb, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Autodesk, Facebook, Netflix, Nubank, Tesla, Uber — all these companies, and many, many more, have changed the world as we know it. If you have been following famous company listings, you would have observed that ten years ago, banks and energy companies dominated the top ten. Today, it’s the technology companies.

In fact, a growing number of companies are redefining themselves as ‘a technology company that happens to do/sell X.’

And they all back their statement by the strength and/or vastness of their digital strategy.

Interestingly, while most companies have a digital strategy, not all of these strategies bring the same transformative impact to their businesses. Several companies do not succeed in their digital transformation journey, even though they make it their no. 1 priority, get a highly qualified champion to lead it, and spend large sums of money on it. GE, Nike, BBC, Ford, Lego, Burberry, Proctor & Gamble — all of them have had long or short, temporary or permanent phases of digital transformation failures. An article by Forbes from 2016 states that 84% of companies fail at digital transformation.

Have you ever wondered, why?

What sets apart the real tech companies from their namesakes?

I sure have!

Obviously, it is not an easy question to answer. Several factors play in — from the robustness of the strategy, the execution, the leadership and the team, to the changes in the business environment, the competitive landscape, the scientific advancements and the customer mindset.

Yet, at the root of it all, one could attribute the success of a digital strategy or transformation to the companies’ ability to recognize, understand and respond to three key trends that have occurred over the last decade or two:

1. The first trend is what I call ‘the Obsession’ — the obsessive-compulsive impulses of companies to ride the wave of digital transformation. Every company I know is undergoing digital transformation, albeit each one has its own definition of ‘digitalization’. How they define it, defines how they respond to it.
2. The second significant trend is ‘the Osmosis’ — the slow blending of technology and business until it became impossible to do one without the other. Tech acumen and business acumen becoming the true winning combination for leaders. Everyone saw this trend coming, many talked about it, but how they manifested it in real terms made the difference.
3. The final and probably the most recent trend is ‘the Overhaul’ — the 180-degree turn in business models, challenging what was intuitive and basic for donkey’s years! Data becoming an asset bigger than money & capital infrastructure (or at least equal); and the boundaries between industries blurring! Could all companies adopt this ‘platform’ business model and be sure to succeed?

The obsession, the osmosis, the overhaul — I am talking trends here, not fads. These are all relatively permanent changes to the technology or the business world that came to exist over two decades, and will continue to have a lasting impact on the way businesses are run.

In the next three articles in this series, I will share my analysis of how these trends, with digitalization at the core, made or broke the competitive edge for companies . I will take examples of companies that have succeeded and those that have failed, and include insights on what you could do to stay the curve.

Read Next: Every Company Is A Technology Company. Or Is It? (Part 2 of 4)

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