Both words “Digital” and “Transformation” mean many things to many people when used either separately or together but, listening to a webcast on both from MITSloan Management Review it struck me that the complete term is a ways down the road and the enterprise tier is getting really serious about it and the mid-market is next. The key point being it’s a TODAY thing.
Digital – Digital electronics has uncannily followed Moore’s Law with incredible advances in “micro everything” to the extent in which development has moved well passed the micro chip to system on chip technology. The retail price of almost all technology has fallen consistently making this amazing power available to you and I in the street and in the office. The R&D and production cycles are also drastically shortened despite intensive capital requirements and raw material risks for the manufacturers. The result – massive increments in digital capabilities available to every segment of the digital economy.
Transformation – Definitively “the act or process of transforming form, appearance, nature , or character” suggests that the very essence is being transformed. So, how should we view the act or process of something that is truly transformative for the business environment. In life in general a personal decision to transform is not a forced act or process nor does it impose a time frame. Business however dances to a different tune in that the pressures on a business driving transformation are both non-optional and time sensitive. Resistance is futile as they say and it boils down to how much damage is done while ignoring the act or process.
As I said, different things to different people either used separately or together but, when it comes to business it is here, now and moving fast. Information technology is truly a transformative issue for business and business leadership. It is not something that can be ignored and there most certainly is a significant price to pay for delayed acceptance and adoption. Simple example being the search engines. They highlight the development and adoption of 4 critical technology aspects I) Cloud, II) Social, II) Mobile and IV) Analytics. Putting mobile technology (phones and tablets) in your hands sharing your information and choices with your social network (friends and colleagues) and analyzing the data, actually learning the data/trends, and then returning meaningful information (mostly with economic results) to you because there is no restriction on processing capability (the cloud). Extended to the business realm this example becomes a completely different discussion because business is by nature competing for customers and in an economic ecosystem. The failure to identify, communicate with and gain economic return from the resulting customer relationship usually spells hardship or disaster and the case studies are a plenty across the spectrum of industry segment and business size.
So what is a CxO to do? It’s a challenge but not impossible. Accept that digital transformation is not only a requirement but a great opportunity. If you can get past the negative “I have to do it” to the exciting “I want to do it” half the battle is won.
- Define digital transformation in the near and long term and seek out some low hanging fruit.
- Identify the transformation agents in the business that will evangelize the effort and embrace the opportunity. They might not be the historical choice i.e. department heads/managers but they must commit to and understand the direction.
- Ensure that innovation is at the very core of every act and/or process.
- Socialize the effort and you will be surprised at where information, ideas and contribution comes from.
- Get help? There are resources external to your organization that are capable, experienced and willing to contribute and indeed lead this effort.
- Strategy. Business strategy always takes point but alignment, review and change in strategy is always necessary.
The results will be there and they will be business results:
- Growth
- Reduced costs
- New products and services
- Efficiencies
- Workforce/Talent retention
- Customers customers customers
If anything is going to be transformed in your business today and tomorrow I cant see anything more transformative than information technology.
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