According to eConsultancy, 11% of businesses don’t see Digital Transformation as a challenge. Lucky? Naive?. For the rest of us, transforming into Digital organisations is complex Genetic Engineering.
Digital transformation goes beyond hiring a few hipster-looking youngsters to launch a website. It is the complete and permanent transformation of every part of the organisation, expunging a lot of what we know and what works, splitting the organisational DNA to splice in those vital Digital strands while we pray that rejection stays at bay.
Digital transformation involves making the customer experience (irrespective of channel) your only goal and measure, embracing a digital and agile culture, and developing intimate and detailed knowledge of strategy, technology, processes and business transformation across all your people. Flattening the organisation, empowering everyone and partnering with each of your customers.
Sounds easy, it’s not. It’s traumatic, messy and very risky. There may be false starts and there will be casualties: people, products, organisational units, partners, systems…
But there is no plan B. Organisations that fail to Digitally transform will not survive. Some may linger along in inefficient, artificially regulated markets, ignoring the growing disdain of customers who don’t have a choice. The rest shouldn’t count on being around at the turn of the decade. The clock has ticked, and there is no turning back.
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