SoC01 Why it’s time for Organizations’ business strategies to be major drivers of Digital Transformation

Kagaruki · 2021-08-19T07:51:23+00:00

All over the world, organizations have embarked on a digital transformation journey in order to remain relevant in the fast-changing business environment catalyzed by possibilities that technology has enabled. Based on factors like pressure, urgency, available talent and capabilities in place, different organizations have now started these processes from varying maturity stages relying on different approaches with different factors and priorities driving the agenda. What is a digitally mature organization? An Organization is considered to be digitally mature if it has succeeded to leverage on capabilities provided by digital technologies to redefine its processes, transform its talent culture and invent new business models that together transform the way it does business and deliver services to its customers. Therefore, from a strategic point of view, for every business entity, technology should be the means to the strategic end results, while leaving the organisation’s business strategy at the driver’s seat. Don’t re-invent the wheel It’s smarter to maximize learning from the best practices and success stories instead of wasting time to attempt to re-invent the wheel. There are a couple of things to learn and adopt from the already digitally mature organizations on how they converged key factors together towards starting their digital transformation journey. So far, one thing that is clear in all the digitally mature organizations is that there is a similarity in five areas which include: There is a clear and concise digital strategy which is also clearly communicated, understood and supported by most of the employees. Strategy scope aims at business transformation rather than solving discrete/operational problems. Significant investment in digital talent. Successful cultural transformations in areas of collaborations, alignment embracing change and innovation attitude towards risk. Eloquent digital leadership. Further, this article will emphasis more on the importance of business strategy as the major driver for digital transformation in any organization Why Start with strategy and vision So far, experience shows that less digitally mature organizations tend to focus on individual technologies and have strategies that are decidedly operational in focus. It’s very common to find most initiatives around discrete operational efficiency and customer experience without a big picture vision or objective on how everything sums up together. In so doing this, such initiatives simply lack foundational planning. One consequence of the lack of foundational planning is that organizations end up with too many disconnected initiatives, or what we can call “digital fragmentation.” To solve this weakness, these initiatives need to be reconciled before an organization can realize the full potential of its digital vision. However, this can be a difficult process because each initiative often has its own business justification and funding. The problem with fragmented initiatives is they are often not well aligned with the company’s strategic goals. They may be a reaction to short-term marketplace events, rather than a true reflection of long-term business goals. But converging them together can be done so as to get a collective digital road map. Without a digital roadmap, organizations run the risk of buying technologies without a clear understanding of their role in driving top-level business outcomes. Organizations that experience the greatest digital transformation success start with vision and strategy. That’s the reason as to why digital transformation should be well founded within the organization’s business strategy. How to go about Vision & Strategy In coming up with a business strategy it is important to have the right vision and getting the organization to agree on the objectives for transformation without getting tied up in implementation details. This is critically important. The right vision gets everybody on the same page and the right strategy creates a shared understanding of how to realize the vision. To skew the business strategy with technology, one needs to start with an assessment of the digital maturity of the business today, and identify the systemic gaps that need to be filled to match the vision, those steps can be built into the roadmap. A digital transformation roadmap then aligns technology resources and programs to the business growth strategy of the firm. Only then can the team get to a point where it can start to talk about implementing technologies, implementing business processes, hiring people with the right skills, and building organizations. Forexample, upscale retailer Nordstrom is often described by industry observers as a leader in digital experience. Nordstrom had a very clear picture in mind when it set out on a multi-year digital transformation initiative. In their vision of a digital future, a customer could walk up to an associate in any store and the associate would have access to all information about that customer—their prior purchases, profiles, preferences, wish lists, recently viewed products—so that the associate could support that customer with an ideal in-store experience. “Having a great strategy and following the strategy process are both important, but they are not everything. The power lies in the scope and objective of the strategy itself.” Nordstrom’s goal was, and is, to support a seamless transition of the digital customer experience from the online environment to the in-store experience. This would enable attending to the needs of a customer at a register, on a point-of-sale display, a company kiosk and also on their own mobile device. That means enabling the integration of customer data across all of those touchpoints. Knowing the desired end result provides insight about the necessary steps to take along the way and how to arrive at that result. Vision is key to differentiating between adequate digital transformations and truly outstanding and successful digital transformations. Digital and mismanagement of funds Its however important to note that sometimes, digital initiative can be used as a loophole for mismanagement of resources by introducing adhoc solutions with random justification without clear metrics for success. Mostly these solutions are supplied by insiders back-pocket companies. Having a clear strategy and roadmap such incidents get significantly minimized. Conclusion Therefore, we learn that what separates digital leaders from the rest is a clear digital strategy combined with a culture and leadership poised to drive the transformation. The history of technological advance in business is littered with examples of companies focusing on technologies without investing in organizational capabilities that ensure their impact. In many companies, the failed implementation of enterprise resource planning and previous generations of knowledge management systems are classic examples of expectations falling short because organizations didn’t change mindsets and processes or build cultures that fostered change. To embark on a digital transformation journey, be certain that the end result will impact every part of your organization. The start will be a fundamental concept of being customer centric in everything you do. As you begin to manage the complexities of organizational change, process improvement, technology integration and content management, remember to make the customer experience a primary objective. This should be in your mind throughout your plans to digitally grow your organization. With that frame of mind, objectively assess your current state, create your future vision, identify systemic gaps, and structure your digital transformation initiative along the four tracks including; people, process, technology, and content. Be sure to set achievable business goals and measurable metrics to manage the process and to continuously assess your progress. In the end, you will position your business to deliver a digital customer experience that will attract more customers, maximize digital revenues, maintain customer loyalty and differentiate your brand in the competitive marketplace-both in the short and long term.

Thread starter Kagaruki
Start date Aug 19, 2021
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SoC01 Why it’s time for Organizations’ business strategies to be major drivers of Digital Transformation

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