Is your organization digital transformation ready?
In this rapidly changing era of technology and soaring use of mobile devices and experiences the consumer expectations for anywhere-anytime data access are putting massive pressure on businesses. Also, the fourth industrial revolution, more popularly known as Industry 4.0, where cyber-physical systems are transforming the way we live, work and connect, businesses will have to find unique ways to transform themselves through an agile-yet-sustainable approach.
Although many companies have embarked on the transformation band-wagon by digitising their business, the process is mostly compartmentalised rather than holistic. For creating a strategic plan and roadmap towards transformation, companies need to follow a systematic approach. This for many companies can be difficult to assess as to where they are — what steps to be taken first or what would be the roadblocks.
Diagnose where we are in our digital readiness index.
Depending on the organizational maturity, industry, competition, value chain and ecosystems, the word ‘Digital’ can have different meanings for different companies. Questions to ask are:-
a. Do we have the technical assets in place for digital initiatives?
It is critical that we diagnose the challenges faced by the company and then determine what digital solutions are suitable for your company to achieve its goals. Mapping current v/s aspirational tech solutions is a good start point. Identifying where are we in terms of our digital underbelly.
b. Do we have the organisational buy-in we need for this initiative to succeed?
Questioning the status quo, especially when the business is running as usual and delivering profits, disrupting it is a challenge in itself. Forecasting how and when the business has a risk of becoming a laggard in the industry before it’s too late to even play a catch-up game requires a good amount of research and thought process shift in the company.
Industry benchmarking to study where they are in the journey, their processes, what’s working and not working for them, is a good conversation starter within the organisation. Presenting the facts about digital champions and laggards, like in this BCG report https://tinyurl.com/y6dlacj8, can get management attention to talk about internalising, budgeting, hiring, partnering for digital initiatives.
Executive buy-in is the single, most critical measurement of the company’s commitment to digital transformation
Map interventions
Architecting the vision and creating a roadmap for success with the digital interventions across:-
a. Intelligent and connected Assets — for top to bottom integration of operations
b. Intelligent and connected products — providing value to services and solutions
c. Intelligent in connected value chains — for collaboration and integration of customers, partners and suppliers
Identifying opportunities across how they connect in physical and digital ecosystems.
Creating capabilities and system intelligence based on tracking, analysing and predicting using the data available to bring efficiencies of time, cost and standardisation. Using the power of data to understand what has happened to what we should be doing as next steps.
Target small wins
a. Bucket transformation activities target quick wins in each to get buy-in and invoke interest across
i. Customer value improvement
ii. Partner/ supplier/ distributor value improvement
iii. Employee efficiency
iv. Manufacturing efficiency (if applicable)
A feasibility vs impact matrix that assigns the right weights to the tasks and helps prioritise efforts for maximum impact helps create a long term roadmap with an end goal in sight. Here, the feasibility is measured from time, resources, money, technology readiness of the company and Impact is measured on value it brings or creates for the stakeholders for whom it is being made available for.
Build capabilities
a. External partners/ experts
Tying up with the right partners who can help drive internal culture shift and change management adoption for growth is critical decision companies need to take at the right time. If infused in the discussions at the right time, the expert team can create service blueprints which layers business process with customers, employees, partners, vendors, distributors, business and technology in an ecosystem. They are then able to identify key gaps and value propositions for each stakeholder and map meaningful digital interventions across functions and processes
b. Embed digital in the organisation
Although, it is imperative that a push for organised transformation from an external partner is necessary for structured efforts, but going ahead a internalisation of the methods and a unified business vision is equally important. Hiring the right talent to drive the vision with tech native generation has been now identified by several traditional companies as stepping stone to transformation routes.
Embracing new mindsets and practices that facilitate perpetual change and the quest for ‘Continuous Next’ strategy for staying ahead of the curve will be the success mantra for the businesses going ahead.
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