Measures of success in the digital revolution

Measures of success in the digital revolution, photo freepik.com

But why do so many companies struggle to adapt and keep up? For starters, digital technology is altering our perception of what it means to be competitive. Businesses nowadays must fight against formidable adversaries that hail from outside sectors. Through their dramatic application of advanced tech, companies outside the sector have displaced the majority of conventional businesses’ clients. The instances of Uber/Grab and the conventional taxi industry serve as excellent manifestations.

Digital technology also stimulates stronger collaboration among competitors. For example, several banks have partnered up with fintech to offer innovative customer propositions. Technological advancement also reshapes our perception of data. Never before has data, particularly unstructured data, been so quickly, abundantly, and cheaply acquired, and the greatest difficulty confronting organisations today. This is not how to process and store data, but how to transform massive datasets into economic benefits.

The digital revolution is disrupting how we innovate. If evaluating ideas was always a costly, time-consuming, and difficult procedure in the past, technology enables us to test and validate ideas more quickly and more cost-effectively. If avoiding creative failure was always the primary objective in the past, today’s innovation efforts are guided by the principle of failing fast and learning fast.

A recent survey of directors, CEOs, and senior executives found that digital transformation risk is their number one concern. According to the findings, about 70 per cent of all digital transformation initiatives do not reach their goals. Of the $1.3 trillion spent on digital transformation shifts in 2019, it was estimated that $900 billion went to waste. Essentially, the vast majority of cutting-edge innovations provide significant advantages to both organisations and their clients or consumers.

However, several first-hand examples demonstrate that fundamentally, most digital technologies provide possibilities for efficiency gains and customer intimacy. But if people lack the right mindset to change and the current organisational practices are flawed, digital transformation will simply magnify those flaws.

Only when the digital transformation worked for these organisations because their executive went back to the fundamentals, they focused on changing the mindset of its members as well as the organisational culture and processes before they decide what digital tools to use and how to use them. A digital revolution is not a matter of technology, but a matter of strategy and a new way of thinking.

There have been some lessons acquired from firms that have effectively embraced digital transformation. First and foremost, the digital shift must be predicated on and aligned with the current business strategy of the organisation being transformed. Do not commence the digital transformation process with an eye towards a specific technology. For the time being, begin with the process of precisely identifying the pain points inherent in the present business model, and then observe if these pain points are comprehensively addressed.

Secondly, high-priced consultants are not always the best option. Numerous firms have failed to embrace digital solutions even though they have hired the best experts. Rather than that, begin your digital transformation with insiders – people who have an extensive understanding of what works and what does not in their day-to-day operations.

New concepts, on the other hand, are often associated with poor outcomes in increasing business productivity and efficiency. Not because of fundamental flaws in the platform, but rather because the expertise and practical experience of insiders have not been taken into consideration and adhered to throughout the transformation preparatory stage.

Thirdly, if the primary purpose of digital transformation is to enhance the customer experience, it is critical to gather as many detailed consumer perspectives as possible and then choose the appropriate digital capabilities. Make every effort available to avoid selecting technology based on default assumptions made inside your organisations.

In order to save time and money on digital transformation, making smaller-scale modifications to different tools at various stages in the service cycle is the most effective tactic. To reiterate, the best approach to determining where and how to make changes is by gathering sufficient information from the customers.

Finally, it is required to reorganise and restructure the present organisational system in order to accommodate the transformation journey.

When it comes to digital innovation, speed of decision-making is critical because of the constant trial and error process until a viable formula is identified. Traditional decision-making frameworks will be a significant hindrance to a swift, comprehensive digital transformation outcome since each option will have to pass through numerous levels of management. As a result, hierarchy and decentralisation must be adjusted appropriately, and it is preferable to adopt a flat organisational structure that is somewhat distinct from the rest of the company.