Momentum is a key quality that define digital transformation. Businesses need to be aware of the consequences of losing pace of digitization and if they slow down should consciously make key shifts in their approach to gain momentum.
Digital Transformation (DX) n is no longer a buzz word today and has become central to growth of the businesses. While the importance of DX is evident, companies move at different paces in their journeys based on their respective capacities and capabilities. Businesses who make modest but meaningful progress in their DX programs, reach a stage where they ponder over two major questions; ‘How have I been doing till now?’ – a report card of sorts that can indicate their position in the journey and ‘What should I do next?’ - a roadmap that can point out opportunities that need to be pursued. As they grapple with answers, some companies tend to get stuck, spend more time than required in finding the right answers and realize their progress impeded only to see the competition rushing past them. There could be many reasons for the slow down. It could be one flourish of an investment that becomes overwhelming for the organisation and they take time get it, or the management is called to justify the investments till date and address the gap between where they are now and what they set out to do or the management is forced to turn its attention to higher priority tasks, business or environment related. Businesses need to evaluate whether the compromise they make because of the slow down.
This article attempts to identify certain actions companies can take to bridge the gap, pick speed, and move towards their desired levels of digitization. There are atleast 5 areas that companies can look at.
1. Escape from the ‘Run’ Mode Swirl
When a significant implementation gets done with, companies move in to a ‘run’ mode to sustain the investment. The management attention is drawn heavily towards fixing internal and external issues, addressing gaps, and bringing some sort of stability. In short, they get caught in the swirl of maintenance. The pipeline projects get impacted and move slowly than planned leading to time delay and cost overruns. Business should consciously avoid getting bogged down in the ‘Run’ mode instead move towards rethinking the traditional Run, Grow, Transform model. A related challenge some companies face is the reluctance to let go of incumbent solutions that cannot scale to serve the growing needs of the business. An impartial evaluation of what works and what doesn’t need to be carried out to take some tough decisions in getting rid of inefficient investments.
2. Strengthen the Governance with Cross-Functional Teams
Certain businesses tend to rely heavily on CIO to sustain the pace of digitization. While on one side, the market forces expect more and smart investments, on the other side, as the stakeholders realise the benefits of the early successes, they see the potential of digital and raise their demands. The IT may soon find itself overburdened managing existing programs and planning for the future projects. Companies may benefit by establishing a cross functional team consisting of star performers to support the business and the CDO / CIO in the transformation journey. The team should be made accountable for the outcomes of the digital investments. Their roles could include:
· Evaluate ideas and build business case for the management to commit.
· Act as change agents who work with employees to adopt new ways of working.
· Ensure coordination across the functions for an inclusive approach to investments
· Benchmark their progress against competition and other players.
3. Adopt more dynamic and flexible methods
A key roadblock in the digitization journey is the pre-set practices of planning, budgeting, and deployment of the digital programs. Businesses need to adopt a more dynamic and flexible working methods by taking the following actions:
· Practice a Monitoring, Evaluating and Learning cycle of key aspects of digitization including stakeholder communication, performance reviews, data management and project management.
· Refine customer journey as often as possible to ensure the changing behaviours and expectations are understood early on and the knowledge ploughed back to redefine digital programs as appropriate.
· Adopt a continuous change process that need to keep pace with the intended business changes and also minimize the side-effects of disturbances to the day-to-day operations and employee involvement
· Be flexible in resource allocation – budgets, human resources – even within the tech budget it could be new softwares or just training to bring people on equal footing.
4. Bring periphery ideas to the core
In any business, there could be a number of opportunities for digitization that lie on the edges of the on-boarding spiral. The management should consciously focus on those opportunities that lie at the edges and bring them to the core by a process of evaluation and shortlist and executing them as a continuous stream of engagements. The management can consider the following:
· Encourage employees to suggest ideas on how their respective functions can do with digital.
· Build a digital lab that brings solutions and partners on a pilot basis and once validated, scale quickly to have a wider footprint of the solution.
5. Build on the Basics
Irrespective of the efforts in the above areas, what may tip the scales towards productive outcomes are the basic ingredients of DX; commitment not just from the management but also from the Board, an inclusive approach to employee participation, a rigorous evaluation of products and solutions and a disciplined on-boarding of the selected products and solutions.
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Losing the pace of DX can be damaging for a business as the recovery can be fraught with risks. By adopting a more flexible and inclusive approach supported by a strong governance can help them gain momentum and realise their DX goals.
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