This could happen to you | Digital Transformation errors to avoid!
Every era sees changes. What qualifies the challenges of digital transformation in modern times is not so much the epoch-reaching ‘impact’ of these as much as the ‘speed’ of change – think ‘electricity’ and ‘wheel’. It is the fastest pace of change that attributes the current transformations to merit a mention of being monumental.
Bringing about digital transformation refers not to digitising existing operations as much as killing existing ones to build almost afresh from an end objective. Example – most of the food-tech companies in e-commerce space are only digitising restaurant ordering while not really transforming the whole journey. The exercise therefore turns out to be an alternative ‘digital’ method to provide restaurants with increased sales.
What is required however is reinventing from the scratch. Digitisation does not mean to improve. Digitisation requires thinking holistic and adopting multiple levers in a sequence to achieve multiplier effect.
Transformational digitisation examples of various scales are there for us to spot at the work place. That we successfully graduated from using manual methods to using computers. The all-pervasive advent of e-mail as a transformative replacement for traditional post. The usage of computers and internet versus the traditional methods of working.
Using electronic bill registers at the retail instead of manual registers is digitizing. The ability to map the entire customer journey and use analytics to drive insights, intelligent process automation through AI to enable using labor arbitrage to improve cost efficiency and using efficient process redesign – is transformational.
Think holistic
Digital transformation requires using digital as a means and operating levers in an integrated and well sequenced manner to bring about the transformation to give breakthrough results.
For transformation to be complete and for it to succeed, what is required is an integrated rather than ‘siloed’ or piece-meal approach.
The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Additionally, there is a need to reimagine rather than improving existing processes. It is important to also not create new silos while thinking holistically.
Ship of Theseus
Highly successful movie – Ship of Theseus – bring this out most dramatically. The title of the film alludes to Theseus’ paradox, most notably recorded in Life of Theseus, wherein the Greek historian and philosopher Plutarch inquires whether a ship that has been restored by replacing all its parts remains the same ship. The paradox thus engages in the idea of identity: “If parts of an object are replaced with similar parts, does it remain the same?” The film explores “questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death” through various stories. The film also refers to ethical issues brought out by applying the Theseus paradox to human beings, “All the cells in a person’s body regenerate entirely in seven years. An individual goes through a shift psychologically, ideologically and physically. Is it still the same person?”
Digital transformation | The role of CEOs
The success of a true digital transformation depends on communication from leadership in creating a broad buy-in. Additionally, not shying away from using external resources liberally in addition to internal ones in actual implementation. The CEO’s role is even more critical because of the magnitude of change, the degree of disruption, and the power of inertia.
Transformation cannot be a ‘siloed’ effort. As any leader involved in turnaround will testify – repairing broken men/companies is far more difficult than getting the new ones to deliver.
“Don’t be afraid. Change is such a beautiful thing”, said the Butterfly.” ― Sabrina Newby
Digital transformation requires new ways of working and not just new technology. It is the CEO’s job to most importantly bring about a mind-set change. The scarcest resource is not necessarily technological know-how but leadership and the organisation mind-set. Un-CEO-like ways and means may need to be exercised as digital transformation is different from traditional transformation owing to unrelenting pace, external resources intervention in implementation and imperfect information.
Gita’s message for self-transformation is
integrated self-unfoldment
coming through self-purification
leading to self-dedication
and ultimately self-realisation.
Digital transformation is no different!
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