According to Accenture’s landmark 2019 research report, ‘Make the Leap, Take the Lead’, businesses adopting digital transformation initiatives saw a 2X revenue growth compared to industry competitors who showed little to no investment in tech adoption. Revisiting the study in 2021, the report reveals that technology leaders have, once again, outdone complacent competition, growing at 5X the rate of laggards on average in the past three years.
These numbers - a staggering metric of digital transformation success - illustrate the opportunities for business process optimization, revenue maximization, and accelerated growth that businesses of all sizes can tap into by increasing tech investments and revving up their rate of reinvestment.
Stripping it back to basics, McKinsey & Company defines digital transformation as, ‘A fundamental rewiring of how an organization operates’, adding that the overall aim is to build ‘a competitive advantage by continuously deploying tech at scale to improve customer experiences and lower costs’.
McKinsey goes on to elaborate that the first step in implementing a corporate digital transformation strategy is arriving at a consensus of what digital transformation means to your company.
Suggesting that a lack of clarity in this regard would stifle any attempts at digital transformation or change management, it adds that in today’s corporate culture, digital transformation is less of a luxury and more of a necessity with companies that neglect tech adoptions at scale and speed falling by the corporate wayside.
In order for your tech leaders and ecosystem stakeholders to arrive at a mutual understanding of what the ultimate direction of your digital transformation strategy is, they would need to design a roadmap that incorporates the following basic principles of an effective digital transformation strategy.
Digital transformation inherently requires the integration of technological solutions like Connected Planning, Business Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to support, supplement, and revolutionize your company.
However, a soberly written Harvard Business Review (HBR) article shares that successfully navigating the digital transformation landscape isn’t just about innovation. ‘It’s about achieving better business outcomes’.
So - in developing your roadmap to corporate digital transformation success - HBR suggests embarking on an exploration of answers to business-related questions rather than adopting a tech-first approach. Ask yourself questions like, “What pain points or market gaps in our industry can be addressed through tech adoption?”, “Is our culture of breeding organizational silos hindering our growth, and if so, how do we leverage Connected Planning to eliminate these issues?”, “How can we leverage Artificial Intelligence to improve employee experiences and retain top talent?”, “Is our business model based on outdated datasets?”, and “How do we reconstruct a model molded on predictive and prescriptive analytics to optimize future-focused revenue streams?”.
In addition to answering these fundamental questions, critically analysing external factors like competitor behaviours, market trends, customer expectations, and regulatory changes relating to technological innovations and adoption will guide you to your ideal digital transformation strategy.
Business leaders often encounter a company-wide culture of resistance to change. In the runup to the adoption of a digital transformation strategy, board directors, C-suite professionals and other members spearheading the transformation initiative need to employ an employee-first approach in successful strategy implementation.
This means educating and empowering your employees with the knowledge and wherewithal to use the tech tools and execute the planned strategy to a precision. This involves a process of trial and error. Building awareness on the realities of adopting a new change management or digital transformation strategy, McKinsey advises that, ‘For every dollar you spend on developing a digital solution, plan to spend at least another dollar on implementing process changes, user training, and change-management initiatives’.
Based on insights shared by digital transformation experts, a large part of the tech adoption process involves listening to the ideas, feedback, and concerns raised by your employees. An imperative step that, if neglected, could result in low adoption rates and ultimately low business value.
While having in-house engineers to support your tech adoption strategy implementation is undoubtedly beneficial, building and leveraging strategic alliances with tech industry experts would ensure the longevity and optimized success of your transformation efforts.
Commissioning the expertise of an industry leading data science company would accelerate the planning and implementation of your transformation strategy ensuring a holistic approach to strategy implementation, testing, monitoring, and development of Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
Developing a business centric digital transformation strategy, empowering your employees to embrace the tech adoption change, and partnering with digital transformation and data science experts will help navigate your company to organizational and operational excellence. Curious to learn more about digital transformation? Get in touch