It’s Time to Go Digital: What Should be on Every CEO’s list
by Sheetal Jaitly, CEO & Co-Founder, TribalScale
It has somehow been eight or so weeks since TribalScale closed its physical doors. However, our digital doors have never been shut. We’ve all had to adjust — regardless of industry, regardless of company, regardless of workforce size. It’s a historic time, and it happened during a time they’ll write in the books (or in the blogs) as the time of digitization, the time of transformation.
Because of COVID-19, countless CEOs and CFOs have halted budgets. This includes projects which sole aim is to help organizations become digital, or transform their organizations to become more relevant in this digital era. TribalScale has long offered services in Digital Transformation, that is, working alongside and within companies to literally transform their organization to become digital. Digital transformation is exactly what it sounds like, it’s a transformation of a company’s mindset, their operations, the entire movement of their team and their tech stack. Breaking down internal barriers translates directly into the faultless customer experience of your services. As a CEO who has, in full transparency, been forced to cut everything down to my own and my team’s salaries to keep the ship afloat, I still cannot stress enough how important digital transformation is, especially now. So here’s my two cents:
I understand the top two priorities CEO’s have right now as 1. having a handle on cashflow, and 2. focusing on going digital. So how do you begin to adopt these priorities as your own?
There are two types of digital projects that companies must embrace:
- Based on Return on Investment (ROI), projects that streamline processes so that they drive efficiency to the business and bring capital efficiency
- Projects that are going to make your company more relevant to your consumer
In a post-COVID-19 world, being relevant in digital and allowing your consumers to work with you in a productive digital manner are qualities that are paramount. For example, credit application processing for banks, approval cures, status, and changing plans and bundles.
There are three key questions companies need to ask themselves:
- How can employees perform and work in a digital environment?
- What role and mission does your brand play in digital?
- What can you do to transform yourself to become a digital-first business?
Some companies that have already started down an agile path need to fuel that flame now, faster than ever. I’m talking pour gasoline on that shit. They need to elevate their change agents and unblock them. This will allow for their transformation roadmap to move faster. Easier said than done of course, because you will be forced to make tough decisions involving your people, processes, and tools. But now is the time for tough decisions. These decisions will carry you out of this and transform your company for a better future. Most decision makers need to know that the political will to make change happen is here, and the time to act is now.
One of our FI clients told us that more innovation and political will has happened in the past three weeks at their company than has taken place in the past five years. This is the right opportunity to remove barriers, and quite frankly, get shit done.
So at the end of all this, once the dust has settled and life continues to the new normal, and you ask yourself who drove the transformation of your business, what will you answer? We’ve all seen the following image floating around social media these last couple weeks. So you get the gist. Take advantage of what’s before you, and transform your company for tomorrow, but do it today.
Sheetal is a passionate advocate for Digital Transformation and Global Innovation. He’s led multiple digital transformation initiatives with companies spanning all different industries, including entire re-designs and creations of digital user platforms. Besides being an avid investor and supporter of digital technology companies, Sheetal is a board member of Feed Ontario, a member of Tech4SickKids Council, DMZ, and TechStars Mentor.
TribalScale is a global innovation firm that helps enterprises adapt and thrive in the digital era. We transform teams and processes, build best-in-class digital products, and create disruptive startups. Learn more about us on our website. Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook!
