“Digital” is no longer considered a nice to
have, it is a necessity

The Digital Experience is no longer considered a nice to have, it is a necessity

They say 40% of companies currently operating around the world will not exist in a meaningful way within the next two decades.

This indicates that companies should start to transition from looking at Digital Transformation as a future endeavor, but as a necessity. Companies need to start prioritizing their digital strategy definition and implementation. But what exactly is digital transformation? The term digital transformation simply refers to the process of shifting your organization from a legacy approach to new ways of working and thinking using digital, social, mobile and emerging technologies. It involves a change in leadership, a new way of thinking, the focus of innovation, new organizational culture and operating model.

Here are five key lessons that can help organizations as they embark on their digital transformation journey.

Lesson 1: Create a Company-Wide Digital Transformation Strategy before you invest in anything
The most important lesson for organizations to be successful with a digital transformation strategy is the mandatory focus on overall strategy definition, identification and evaluation of new capabilities, and supporting strategy execution across multiple lines of business in the entire organization. Before you start to implement and invest in new capabilities and technologies, your digital transformation strategy must be developed and socialized with leaders from all lines of business within the company.

Lesson 2: Leverage the right expertise to lead the digital transformation initiative
For a successful digital transformation strategy implementation, the right mix of experience and capabilities at leading transformative initiatives must be leveraged in your organization.

Lesson 3: Reinvent your operating model
Digital transformation will have a profound influence on the way your business will work and the way it will relate to your customers and employees. This means a complete review and reinvention of your operating model is important and necessary to succeed.

Lesson 4: Recognize that strategy and not technology is the primary driver in digital transformation
Defining and creating a digital operations environment is not just about mobilizing and implementing different technologies, it is about integrating digital technologies into the overall organization’s business strategy.

Lesson 5: Your digital transformation will not succeed without cultural change
Finding ways to shape digital disruption should be on the agenda of leadership. Leadership must develop an aggressive approach to change the culture to promote digital disruption. Organization culture must be tackled from the beginning with sufficient metrics and reporting mechanisms to put in place to track success. A risk embracing and collaborative culture must be promoted.