“We have entered the digital age.” What does that mean for business, government, and individuals? First, “Digital Transformation” is about leveraging all business activities, processes, competencies, and opportunities available due to changes created by digital technologies. For instance, Amazon is a post-internet company that is taking advantage of digital technologies. They grew almost 23% from 2013 to 2014 and in 2015 they became the ninth largest U.S. retailer (according to the National Retail Federation). All other U.S. retailers had single digit (or less) growth during this period (except Kroger at 10.1%).
“The strength of digital technologies—social, mobile, analytics, cloud—doesn’t lie in the technologies individually. Instead, it stems from how companies integrate them to transform their businesses and how they work.” – MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte University Press
One of the critical mistakes made during Digital Transformation efforts is to simply overlay digitization on existing processes or to look at various digital technologies individually. These mistakes typically make existing processes more cumbersome, costly, and less productive. There are three basic questions that you should ask about your organization’s Digital Transformation efforts:
- Vision – How will this transformation affect my stakeholders? Digital Transformation efforts must include a vision that has a positive impact on employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
- Culture – Is your organizational culture ready for digital transformation? Your organization’s leadership team needs to ensure your organization’s culture can support your transformation vision.
- Processes – How will organizational processes change? Are you leveraging digital technologies or simply digitizing existing processes.
The Three Components of Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation can be successful when your “digital” vision is supported by and aligned with your organization’s culture and processes. We have entered the digital age and there is no turning back! Is your organization ready?