Innovation and transformation are two factors driving change in any industry. They help companies remain competitive in the market. However, often, these two terms are used interchangeably or synonymously. Indeed, both are enablers of digital transformation, but it is also essential to identify when an enterprise needs either of them or both.

Last year, the adoption of digital transformation had accelerated by multiple years in only a few months. Though the world was threatened by the sudden changes, expectations and demands in the initial months, these rapid changes, technological disruption, the unexpected competition encouraged many companies to turn to digital transformation to survive the outset and aftermath of the pandemic. While innovation is the key to digital transformation and unlocking the true potential of businesses, using emerging technologies – it is equally important to transform the processes and business models by leveraging those technologies. This implies that both innovation and transformation are crucial and related facets of digital change.

For instance, through innovation one can quickly unearth short-term gains by identifying the bottlenecks in a business pipeline. However, to reap long-term benefits from this initiative, business leaders also need to transform and redefine their strategy and planning towards solutions that will align with their objectives. And the planning should prioritize embedding innovations into the business pipeline for higher architectural resilience.

The only constant thing in the dynamic business world is 'change.'

Apart from the widening of the lens of innovation, it is mandatory that business leaders recognize the core skill of their businesses and place themselves as the go-to-market location for a specific outcome from it. They should also take cognizance that to emphasize on creativity and cross-functional arrangements to build innovation, they require to develop a culture that fosters agility and the tolerance of failure. This will help them push the boundaries of innovation and maneuver a transformation within the organization. They must also acknowledge that not every emerging technology can transform their business purposes. Some can disrupt the status quo while others can forge path for brand-new revenue streams, by improving current products and services or creating and implementing new ones.

For successfully enabling innovation, transformation, or both, business leaders should be eager to explore the offerings of all emerging and disruptive technologies. And to up their game, they should be open to pivoting to new opportunities without sacrificing old interests, determining which opportunities to pursue, and fine-tuning business activities to act on those opportunities.

Innovation creates a ripple effect in an organization when people embrace it through the actions of different groups on the team. Therefore, it is crucial to build and empower a diverse workforce to incubate ideas. Meanwhile, transformation requires initiative, consistent commitment, the zeal to develop something out of the box, and actions that focus on the core competencies and business-critical values. This action plan may bring changes to the organization's products, target customers, customer experience, long-term strategy, organizational structure, or a combination of all of the above. However, neither innovation nor transformation happens overnight! So, to be successful in digital transformation, one must keep experimenting at the same time as progressing ahead with emerging technologies, to attain reimagined endpoints and values.