Digital transformation refers to a journey of digital enablement that accelerates business activities, processes, competencies, and models leveraging on the opportunities brought by digital technologies. It is a culmination of coordinated, scalable change efforts diffused throughout all aspects of the business. To impact society in a prioritized way involving strategic moves by data-driven insights and digital business models allowing new ways to capture value by meeting customer expectations.
Digital Transformation has become a common buzzword used with vendors, third party suppliers and consultants. As the Digital Era continues to progress, the challenges for both leaders and organizations are increasing as transformation involves the integration of social and digital technologies into an organization’s operations.
Many CIOs are making sweeping organizational changes, reskilling employees, setting up innovation labs and experimenting with emerging technologies to meet strategic mandates issued by their CEOs and boards. The CIOs & strategic heads try and balance costs with value delivery bringing new skillset with a new workplace culture that changes rapidly through a dynamic strategy.
A Forrester Consulting research study done by Accenture Interactive shows that the key drivers of digital transformation are profitability, customer satisfaction, and increased speed-to-market.
WHY DO WE NEED IT IN FIRST PLACE: IDENTIFYING CURRENT PROBLEMS FACING ORGANISATIONAL HEADS?
It’s an exciting new era in Business Transformation, with major technology changes ahead. For example, an engaged finance team can elevate finance to an intelligence-led strategic instrument of growth and profitability for the enterprise. To achieve that new capabilities are essential. CFOs are increasingly beginning to invest in building skills such as predictive analytics, scenario building and experimentation which rely on humans trained on new technologies and data-based insights. Delivering those experiences requires proactively addressing the challenges presented by different regions, device types, and digital platforms.
Digital transformation provides a valuable opportunity for core business functions, such as finance and HR, to move away from manual processes and automate key areas like payroll, enabling leaders to focus on wider business opportunities. Rather than marginalizing workers, the influx of technology brings a new level of empowerment and engagement.
CHROs have a lot to grapple with the fact that AI will impact 100% of jobs as it becomes embedded into the workflows that make up those jobs. Therefore, the CHRO has to address a certain amount of fear and uncertainty present in the workforce. They must shift in day-to-day work patterns to an agile working method.
Many CEOs find it challenging to navigate the world of social media, which is growing 24/7daily and here to stay. And the COOs have to look into intelligent workflows that eliminate barriers in operations making organizations more responsive, reduce waste and identify new business models by connecting the dots between real-time operational events and work schedule.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO EMBRACE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION?
Digital disruption today has become the order of the day. Technology is fundamentally changing business and life in profound ways in breadth, depth and scale and, importantly, at an exponential pace. Businesses are now forced to rethink the way they organize themselves.
Since 2000, 52 per cent of companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired, or ceased to exist as a result of digital disruption (Harvard Business Review, July 2017).
To improve business processes and develop new capabilities and business models’ businesses across the globe are forced to digitally transform. In this economic reality where all industry sectors are disrupted, actionable intelligence has become the new currency. Companies find it difficult to innovate and grow due to fragmented technology landscape, constant product evolution and changing consumer preferences.
There is a lack of agility and insufficient competencies and a learning-friendly culture to generate innovation. Organizations have always worked with lines drawn around technologies, functions or processes. Try as they might want to optimize within these silos, the output is never quite as satisfying as it could be. There is an absence of self-assessment gauges that help assess the company’s delivery approaches balancing digital experience with web security. The results and recommendations will provide insights into your organization’s readiness for digital business success.
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Google, Amazon, Facebook and such tech giants are driving high-quality digital transformation in consumer experiences making it difficult for digital companies deliver high customer expectations. There is an innovation barrier that needs to be crossed with new roles and action areas to be spearheaded Learning & Development (L&D) team who will act as a change agent, consultant and shaper of innovation culture. Especially in this VUCA environment, many leaders are struggling with promoting and maintaining safe and supportive work environments.
Businesses are not fully understanding customer needs and consumers are not giving businesses credit for the level of investments the companies are making. Digital transformations failing is often due to poor leadership, major disconnects between IT and the business, sagging employee morale and substandard operations, according to a report from MIT Sloan School of Management on digital transformation.
A research study was conducted of 800 executives and 800 consumers, across four industries banking, retail, utilities, and healthcare concludes that $4.7 trillion in investment dollars have yielded little improvement, of that only 19 per cent of consumers reported any significant improvement in the experiences offered to them. Then a $5-trillion question arises whether digital transformation budgets are well spent?
A QUICK REVIEW OF FEW KEY INDUSTRIES ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
The ultimate challenge in change management happens to be Digital business transformation. It impacts not only industry structures but affects all levels of an organization. The leading companies have agile, customer-focused ethos recognizing that digital transformation is a cultural change, not just a technological change. Let us examine Finance, Media, Chemicals and Insurance industry trend.
As businesses of today are trying to adapt to Digital Era realities. The global banking industry is yet to realize financial returns from their digital transformation investment of over $1trn in new technology in the last three years. The analysis shows that the finance sector can automate 80 per cent of today’s transactional processes with the creation of an intelligent finance system creation. CFOs are trying to invest in digitally savvy finance teams along with chief human resources officer (CHRO). Together, they are trying to create a future-forward finance capability defined roles and empowering employees with intelligent technologies. As the nature of finance work changes, so will the makeup of the finance-related workforce.
Media and Entertainment industry emerges as a clear winner in the engagement game constantly evolving from your iPod Shuffle to iPhone XI. According to a PwC study, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon and Internet advertising will see the most annual growth. It’s expected that digital revenues will account for over 60% of total revenue in the media and entertainment industry by 2023. The global entertainment and media (E&M) industry revenues are expected to reach 2.6 trillion by 2023. China’s absolute growth in the entertainment and media industry is expected to exceed that of the United States with India coming third.
Digital technology also holds a tremendous promise for the Chemicals industry in driving its business value. The requirements in the process industries, oil & gas and chemicals in particular, are very different than in general manufacturing. The value drivers of process industry many of them are centred on improving work efficiency and avoiding incidents. For example, the use of Microsoft’s HoloLens technology to allows personnel on-site to contact remote experts about problematic plant equipment with the use of 3D printing use the “freedom of design” to improve the part.
Last year alone, more than $4 billion was invested in Insurance technology, and continuing to increase. Most focused on ensuring good user-experience. When a prospect becomes a customer, the carriers try and engage them further in new ways. Similarly, the acceleration of the underwriting process has been on machine learning and AI with chatbots and virtual digital assistants.
TECHNOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIVING
Artificial intelligence systems have tremendous ability to comb through vast amounts of customer usage data and effectiveness of sales techniques and marketing strategies in search of useful patterns and other insights. Their study involves sales and marketing data not only from the end-consumer standpoint but also to determine the effectiveness of sales techniques and strategies themselves. Delhi air quality is one of the most talked-about issues, with innovative use of technology such as cost-effective IoT sensors across the city attached to street light can help measure and report air quality.
When today’s customer gets into an Uber he does not need to verbally communicate with the driver. The technology does all the work for him from directions to billing fare. Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) airport check-in has set the benchmark making air travel so easy, comfortable, seamless and paperless.
Another example is the popular Airbnb which uses technology to facilitate sellers and users across the world to a come into comfortable arrangements without the search cost. Customers have now started expecting the same kind of experience that they have with technology in their personal lives in business too. Research by Walker predicted that by 2020 customer experience will overtake price and product as the main differentiator. As Millennials and Gen Z have become the majority of workers, they bring a desire for purpose-driven work.
87% of customers measure all products and services against Amazon and Starbucks (Wunderman, 2018)
Organizations have woken up and are increasingly deploying agile hybrid IT services and agile networking and getting the user experience right as a critical part of business transformation. Involving both usability’s of applications for external customers, as well as for internal employees through IT training and upscaling capabilities.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS HOLD THE KEY TO FUTURE
Since competition within the industries is extremely fierce and demands from customers forever increasing, the organizations are now getting increasingly reliant on each other, be it suppliers, distributors, sub-contractors or specialized consultants, producing a diverse range of products and services that interest customers. As managing these partners requires document-based communication, a process which was earlier viewed as time-consuming is now faster through technology. A streamlined workflow transparent, timely and accurate with an eSignature system is used.
The businesses that thrive in the future will be those that reposition themselves to deliver seamless, satisfying experiences through the perfect mix of human and machine intelligence. Intelligent workflows are right at the heart of this evolution towards becoming a Cognitive Enterprise.
DEVELOPING NEXT-GENERATION LEADERS
In this digital era, many roles that exist today won’t exist in the future. And the new roles that no one has yet envisioned will emerge. Without a crystal ball, CEOs must invest in continuous learning for their team. Employees need to be rated according to their mastery of new skills rather than how much time they put into the learning process. In many cases, this accelerates the whole procedure.
A comprehensive workforce strategy will unleash new sources of value, greater speed and agility, and the creation of more valuable strategic services for the business. While new technologies remain an impetus for change, the number of leaders who expect customer experience to drive change in their organizations jumps nearly three-fold. 55% of customers are willing to pay more for a good experience (Think Jar, 2017).
Next-generation business is looking at the convergence of technology like artificial intelligence (AI), automation, Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain and 5G to reshape business architecture. An evolved Enterprise transforming from the inside-out bringing together data, smart people and technology together.
LEADERSHIP TRIBE UK I USA I INDIA I CHINA I SINGAPORE I UAE I
We are present in all 5 continents having clients and partner offices in more than 15 cities in over 7 countries, we have a truly global perspective plus the ability to collaborate on particular matters with international consulting firms. Please contact us to see how we can help you and your business:
LEADERSHIP TRIBE: HOW ARE WE HELPING ORGANISATIONS?
1. We enhance your leadership skills to create and lead business transformation initiatives in your organization.
2. Equip you with the understanding of strategic drivers of digital transformation, data, analytics and, technology, to lead your organization to grow.
3. Help you to build the capabilities to understand the business frameworks for value creation and innovation to lead transformation initiatives for a sustainable competitive advantage
4. Advice on AI leverage to provide personalization and effective compelling customer experiences.
5. Apply AI to increase efficiency and effectiveness to your core business process.
6. Apply Deep learning models for better decision making and deriving insights
7. Building fluid work structures with cross-functional teams to promote autonomy and exponential learning
OUR SERVICE OFFERING:
We offer a wide range of consulting, training and coaching services to help our clients to build their internal capability and deliver their business transformation. The following are the typical areas we have helped our clients:
STRATEGY FACILITATION AND BUSINESS PLANNING
We help our clients to plan to achieve their vision and objectives. We also advise on the appropriate processes, practices and tools on demand.
ORGANISATION DESIGN
We help our clients to identify dysfunction in their structures, systems and workflow and help them to become agile and customer-focused and develop plans to implement the new changes.
OPERATING MODEL
We work with our clients to streamline and restructure the way they do business and deliver value. We help client’s lower costs, build greater resilience, and improve performance.
ACCELERATED AGILE TRANSFORMATION
We help our clients to plan and execute Agile transformation. We assess their Agile maturity and readiness, address challenges and assist transformation with appropriate consulting and training.
TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION
We uplift our clients’ ability to learn, progress and innovate through IC Agile-accredited classes as well as certification courses in Agile, Design Thinking, Building High-Performance Teams, Leadership Training, etc.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
We help our clients develop sustainable change and lasting results, achieve the required business outcome and realise envisioned benefits.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO)
Our PMO practise helps the client to establish, lead, facilitate and deliver transformation programs.
CONSULTANTS ON-DEMAND
We help our clients to reduce the cost and risk in their transformation journey by helping them to source the most suitable candidates with the right skills and fit for the organization.
MENTORING AND COACHING
We help the client’s team to acquire new knowledge and skills, embed them in practice, and enhance the overall performance via mentoring and coaching.
TRAINING FOR LEADERS
Understand the big-picture context for digital transformation efforts and identify maturity level and find a digital strategy on track for the long term.
TRAINING FOR TECH LEADERS
Dive into technologies that are driving digital innovation-cloud computing, big data and data science, machine learning and AI, blockchain, and IoT.
Help transform mindset shifts at organizational and individual levels. Increase digital literacy and learn how to work and collaborate in new, more productive ways.
We also give support on the learning path with numerous other courses related to digital transformation, including agile project management, change management, design thinking, and how-to courses on today’s digital collaboration tools.
You can drop us a line on hellouk@leadership-tribe or reaching us through contact us
