15 May, 2018 | Blogs
Executives can no longer ignore the importance and significant impact of applying digital technologies. Customers are already using digital channels and are wanting more than ever to connect and socialize with the brand; therefore, the main question to ask is “What are companies really waiting for?”. It isn’t affordability, availability of technology, or lack of human resources. The main obstacle that stands in the face of digital transformation is the leadership’s willingness to undergo such a change.
A Step Towards Digital Transformation
To undergo a Digital Transformation, a phased approach is always recommended. Companies should focus on the following:
1. Digitization Strategy
2. Change Management
3. Investing
Digitization Strategy
Identifying a unifying larger-than-life goal for the company is the essence of the whole Digitization (or any) Strategy process. Given that the 4th industrial revolution is moving at a speed faster than ever before and at a breadth that is transforming industries in ways that are yet to unfold, a Firm’s Digitization Strategy can’t be about the small stuff. A company needs to continuously consider re-inventing itself or it will be eaten up by the thousands of startups that are all trying to eat into its market share one bite at a time. Further, a company can’t afford to spend months on developing their digitization strategy. It is fair to say that if a company has not embarked on any real transformation initiatives so far, it doesn’t have the internal resources or culture required to do so. Hence, there is a need for external experts to come in and assist in developing this approach.
Our experts follow a structured digital transformation framework to help firms develop their strategies and support them throughout the transformation.
1st Stage: Digital Awareness Workshop
Internal Data Assessment
External Data Assessment
Futuristic Data
The reason we start with a workshop is to create an open and welcoming environment within the company to allow for the ideation process to start. Regardless of the area to be focused on… whether it is sales focused, operations focused, or any other aspect of the company function… the workshop process allows multi-disciplinary members of the company across a variety of seniority levels to interact and identify areas of transformation.
This process of data and fact-based brainstorming typically identifies several focus areas. It is easy to jump into conclusions and simply “vote” on the one to choose. But this would be overly naïve. A unifying goal for a new direction needs to be inspirational and realizable at the same time. The selection process needs to take into account several factors that are not usually suitable for a ‘community’ decision making process. This is where we jump into our second stage of the process.
2nd Stage: Digital Vision and Strategy
Ideation
Evaluation
Prioritization
Road-map Development
Each company has its own factors and critical dimensions to consider before setting a future direction. We take the results of our previously run workshop and take them through a thorough evaluation and prioritization process that takes into consideration all of such factors. The process should result in a top 3 recommended approaches with a Pros / Cons for each of them. While we present our views clearly, we encourage the senior management to challenge us and we provide our fair share of push back also. This process is healthy and results in the best approach and the most buy in.
We don’t stop here. A large and aspirational goal must have some clear realization approach. A simple and direct roadmap is developed to identify the general timeline and benefits realized along the way. Such a roadmap also provides for encouragement and incentive opportunities along a long and potentially difficult process.
3rd Stage: Digitization Implementation Support
Project Plan
Implementation Support
Business Intelligence Support
Once the strategic goal and its roadmap has been identified, our project management experts work with a selected customer steering committee to put together the implementation approach. A detailed and milestone driven project plan is developed. Each change initiative is owned by a team with clear timeline and list of deliverables.
Finally, senior management along with the rest of the company will have a keen interest in tracking progress of these strategic initiatives. Our BI team will work on both collecting the data generated from the various efforts, making sense of them to measure progress and identify improvement opportunities. Finally, tracking Dashboards will be created to be utilized by various levels of the company.
No matter what sector a company is in, digitization and disruption is on its way to you if it hasn’t reached you already… No one can afford to rely on current market share, or strategic relationships, or regulatory frameworks as an excuse for not continuously re-inventing themselves. Change or be Changed!
To address all your digital transformation needs, contact us on sales@nuummiteconsulting.com or click here!
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