Digitalization: businesses are ready, customers are not
The digital transformation is taking place at different paces around the world. It has been a challenge to transform non-digital natives into digital ones.
It’s a reality: We are living in the digital era, and there are still many people that can’t digitalize.
It is most frequently common in older generations, but also there are still some younger ones who are not able to adapt yet, the contrast on evolution is quite wide, and this is surprising.
Possible reasons of non-digitalizing:
In the business environment:
• No competence in their market
• They sell “impulse products” and need to be located physically (for example shops with a touristic market, or informal businesses in the streets, etc.)
Personal motivation
• Comfort zone
• Lack of information
• Lack of interest
• Not influenced by younger generations
• Prejudice about the digital world: “seems scary”
• No cultural influence in their environment
Economy
• The city or town is not well adapted to internet connection
• No economical resource to buy a smartphone, a computer or a tablet, or even to make a contract of wi-fi
• The development of the city is behind and they still do everything in a traditional way (pen and paper, tv, telephone), so they don’t find the need of digitalizing
In 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, digital transformation took place in a very accelerated way as a necessity: for companies to keep on running and surviving, for employees to keep their jobs, for schools to still teaching, for individuals to keep on connecting, etc.
The despair lowers the rhythm of revolution.
For developing countries, this was not easy for the majority of the population. For example, in Mexico just 56.4% of the homes have internet, and 44.3% own a computer.(Inegi 2020)
What happened with the schools? Yes, they were closed. And the public schools tried to give online classes. The result: a disaster. Most of the families had no internet, and the luckiest ones were the ones that could have internet, and the ownership of 1 or 2 smartphones (from the parents), was not enough. What about the families with 2 or more children? What about the parents that couldn’t stay at home to help their children with their courses, because they needed to go out and work?
More than half of the population couldn’t continue with their studies.
The country was not ready for this big change. The result: they urgently needed to swap the communication into a non-digital way, and the courses were given by an open TV channel.
This is a real example, but also the administrative formalities are going digital, job posts, information: culture, healthcare, transport, etc.
Let’s remember that not all the world is going at the same pace. And we still have to think about non-digital natives that are behind of the rest of the world.
Here’s where the gap is.
When businesses are ahead of the capacity of their customers.
So, do we agree is not just about the will of the people to digitalize, but the external factors that influence this slow adaptation?
Solving the problem.
Cooperation between public and private stakeholders is needed to innovate and revolutionize these areas.
Government: invest in free wi-fi sources, especially in the less developed areas.
• Help with subsidies in infrastructure
But he has to consider that in itself is not enough, it should be the tool behind a fully-fledged economic, social and environmental local strategy.
Businesses: an opportunity to invest in businesses with sponsorships that will help them, in reward, as a strategy to create brand awareness in a product or service, for example:
• Training courses in digitalization for beginners
• Credit offering
• Free testing
• Rewards
In what topics? Each stakeholder in its branch should work into it. There are existing associations in each country or region, that can develop a training program: from basics to advanced. The businesses can interfere in this gap to help their market. For example:
• For small businesses: on how to use digital tools to ameliorate their working efficiency; create employment
• For schools: on how to teach online, and specific tools for students.
• For other industries such as agricultural and constructing sectors, health care, citizenship, and all other sectors which also include personal necessities.
Every problem has a solution, and every solution can be a business proposition. Our world needs hands, cooperation, and goodwill to create positive changes and help the ones behind!
Any idea? Welcome to the team!
About this article
This article has been written by a student on the Grenoble Ecole de Management’s Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy Management. As part of a content creation assignment, students are given the task of writing articles based on their digital interests and disseminate the articles online. Articles are marked but we make minimal changes to the content. Thanks for reading! James Barisic, Programme Director, MS DSM.
