Digital Transformation in the post COVID19 world: Challenges still remain
COVID19 has become a clarion call for organisations to go digital. This has made Digital as a key differentiator for organisations to further its top line as well as its bottom line. In fact many of the Digital Transformation specialists have been saying this for ages now.
I have been reading and seeing a lot of articles every where which talks about how organisations which are digitally superior or in more advanced stages of transformation are doing better than their non-digital counterparts. This is definitely true. Digital organisations have been able to adopt to changes like no other organisation.
Having said this, challenges with regards to transformation still remain. Organisations which hastily embark on the Digital Transformation journey now, will fail like how it has happened in the pre-covid world. They will end up blaming their partners as well as COVID19 for this and end up concluding that Digital Transformation is not for them.
In my experience and the case studies that I have read, two reasons standout with regards to success of Digital Transformations. This will hold true even in the post-covid world.
- Objectives for transformation & measuring them
- Organisational Culture
Objectives & metrics
Unless the objectives of transformation are arrived at, the digital transformation will never be successful. It will be like trying to fire an arrow at moving target while you yourself are moving in a different direction.
As per Schroeder & Schroeder
Effective transformation involves pursuing the organization’s fundamental purpose, within the context of its core values, in ways that effectively and optimally meet and reconcile the current needs of the target market and of key stakeholders.
If your sole purpose or objective of your digital transformation is based on COVID19 then you have lost the battle completely. COVID19 is a black-swan event it should not be the basis of the digital transformation journey. In fact organisations should dwell deeper to understand the true purpose of their Digital Transformation. They can use some of the below tools and frameworks that can really help them transform.
- Golden Circle Framework by Simon Sinek. It can help you as an organisation as to why, how and what are trying to transform. This can be the whole mission of the transformation program
- OKR Framework to define metrics or results that you are trying achieve based on your objectives. This will help organisations to understand early if they will meet their objectives
Organisation Culture
This is one of the key building blocks which can make or break an organisation. One of the early aspects of transformation, is to deal with organisation culture and based on which the transformation strategy needs to be laid out.
As per Harvard Business Review
For organizations seeking to become more adaptive and innovative, culture change is often the most challenging part of the transformation.
So while defining the transformation strategy, look at the organisation culture. Some of these aspects involve
- How are interactions between the leaders and the employees in general — whether its a top -down or an open culture.
- Is the culture of the organisation supportive of change
- How are failures handled in the organisation. Are the employees punished for failures
Some of these need to be looked at while defining the transformation strategy.
Once organisations take into account the objectives, measurements and organisational culture into perspective while defining their digital transformation strategy, the chances of succeeding goes up
