5 Lynchpins to prevent a Digital Transformation fail.
Short opinion – Yes, you can prevent a DX #fail.
This is part 2 on this subject. Previous post is here.
If you think about it, there are three things that you are dealing with at a high level. People, Business and Change. Technology, yes but that is the key enabler. Allow me to elaborate and list how these three can translate into five distinct lynchpins. Business Outcomes, not Technology, need to drive the transformation.
Business Outcomes, not Technology, need to drive the transformation
New business models, new ways of doing business and new ways of connecting with people. That really is what DX is about. I plotted a handful of examples, with some help from Gartner’s 2017 hype cycle, to show you how game changers from the past behaved in comparison to the current catalysts and how far the latter are from reaching their prime. Survey results seems to concur. They say, the ability to innovate shows up as the top measure by which the success of DX is measured (46%), along with revenue growth (46%), followed by cost reduction (43%). And new business models being the top driver of DX (41%), followed by new technologies (40%). If these catalysts are to play a role in your DX, then the latter will automatically be more about new revenues, new customers, new ways of doing business.
Strategic Alignment
Communication of the DX strategy, and the expected changes are as important as the strategy itself. Alignment is required with employees and partners as much as it is required with the board and customers.
A board not bought in or with divergent views can derail a DX story or cause delays at the minimum. Either they need to get aligned, or in some extreme cases the DX program needs to be deferred till the inclement situation changes.
And customers need to get aligned before DX related changes impact them.
Multiple Transformations. At Scale.
It is likely that most organizations would not have appetite for a big bang Digital Transformation. However, Digital Transformation is likely to change an organization inside out and its fundamental approach to doing business. These changes would happen in multiple tranches, and in multiple overlapping ripples. This needs an enterprise wide approach and needs cross functional teams to develop and implement strategy.
In many organizations, bulk of this work is done by IT. IT, however, needs to be considered the enabler while the strategy work is owned preferably by an independent team which is more business focused that IT biased. This type of a situation requires collaboration, and breaking down of silos.
Culture of Constant Change
One of the most important things to understand is that we are seeing change in the workplace, in industries and in technology at a pace never seen before. If you plot the advent of game changers, you will see a cluster during WW2 and just before, then in the early to mid-nineties and then a plethora of them (mostly technology led) in very recent times. Each time, one of these game changers comes along, it drives business in a certain direction that will impact your organization. Many of these catalysts likely will need to be built into your DX strategy, implying you will need the organization to be ready for the multiple changes even during the run of your DX program.
Using your workforce (millennials) intelligently
Diversity isn’t just by colour, sex, ethnicity. It is also created by age.
A large fraction of your work force will be millennials, if not so already. If HR types have been telling you, that is a problem … your problem is actually 3X. Millennials comprise three bands of your employees starting from folk almost fresh out of college, to older people who have 18-19 years of work experience. That is a wide range of 18 years which are three groups ranging six years each. Millennials will engage and work hard if motivated enough, not for roles they perceive meaningless. However, across the age bands, the learning styles will be different, motivators will be different.
As you initiate the multiple smaller transformations in your organization, the leadership must be assigned by skills and not by seniority. This implies that many of the transformation cohorts will be led by millennials, side by side with older employees.
So, your DX can be successful when you have strategic alignment with all stakeholders and is driven by business outcomes using multiple smaller transformations in an organization which is prepared for a changing environment and knows how to take advantage of its workforce.
Have you already started your digital transformation journey? We can help with a quick assessment of its progress and alignment. > Visit the 3nayan web site or write to us.
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