Digital Transformation a hefty term defining change management as a successful happy reality!

Business competition is increasing and to keep the enterprise outperform its competitors, CXOs face a constant challenge to keep up with the pace of technological advancements.  A comprehensive success demands the perfect marriage between digital transformation and change management. Business competition is increasing and to keep the enterprise outperform its competitors, CXOs face a constant challenge to keep up with the pace of technological advancements.  A comprehensive success demands the perfect marriage between digital transformation and change management.

Digital Transformation (DX) is a hot topic on boardrooms, and multiple research estimates point that about 125,000 enterprises expect a revenue increase of 80% from their digital initiatives, this means, enterprises will invest more in digital transformation initiatives, an expenditure increase from 22% to 50% in 2020. Though the numbers are impressive, only about 27% of enterprises walking the Digital Transformation journey have a full proof roadmap to implement their DX strategy into a course of action.

So why is digital transformation a white elephant in the room?

Change management, a term hard to define and even harder to implement involves a holistic change altering legacy systems and very much how a business works. Digital transformation is not only about technology change, or an organizational structure rejig– it impacts all of them, famously called the three Ps of business functioning-

• People- Comprises of culture, skills, structure and capacity.

• Process- Encompasses workflows, tasks, approaches and methods.

• Physical- Brings together geography, facilities, equipment and technology.

Decoding 'Digital' Transformation

A transformation can be called 'digital' specifically when technology is made to work in the backstage to solve traditional business problems and fundamentally change the traditional way of operations. Due to the uniqueness of each enterprise's structure and different challenges faced, it causes a lot of confusion. This is the reason why digital transformation looks different ranging from one organisation to another.

A perfect digital transformation road map leverages an enterprise's vision, strategy, and goals to bring about a change in its legacy form of working. The basic motto's suited to every enterprise embarking its DX journey is to achieve-

• A futuristic strategy that aligns with investments and ROI.

• Maximizes benefits in terms of people, and technology.

• Uplifts and Upgrades customer experience.

• Achieves DX with minimal business disruption.

Why Digital Transformation?

If you are wondering why is such an urgent need to adopt Digital Transformation (DX), then consider this- A study from MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte identifies five common objectives of digital strategy:

• Enhanced customer experience and engagement

• A visible increase in organisational efficiency

• Improved business decision-making

• Improved innovation capabilities

• Business transformation

Drawing the Digital Transformation Map

How do you know if your enterprise is ready for a digital transformation? The first thing to ascertain is to have a digital transformation roadmap that lays a solid foundation for a successful transition.

To begin with DX, the first step is to start with a current assessment, identify gaps and define the corrective actions and resources in tandem with people, process, technology and processes. The following questions would help the C-Suite to understand the need to travel the DX roadmap in the current times-

• Why- The Enterprise needs a digital transformation?

• What – Are the objectives to be achieved, what changes are required in the existing processes?

• Which- Technologies will help to begin and scale-up DX? Is it RPA or Intelligent Automation to begin with?

• How – The existing resources will be trained; how does the enterprise handle labour ethics?

• How- To measure ROI, and devise scale-up planning?

Thus, to implement a successful Digital Transformation strategy, an enterprise must-

1. Have clarity on its strategic vision.

2. Reach a balance between the risk of technology trails and their funding.

3. Leverage the existing and emergent technologies to transform the business.

4. Understand its capacity and the pace of change that it is willing to undertake.

5. Adopt agility and flexibility to adopt change management with minimal disruptions.

It's surprising to note that only 33% of enterprises meet the difficult challenge of digital disruption, placing bigger strategic bets sometimes in the tune of over 10% of their market capitalization. The rewards are significant, happy stakeholders and higher shareholder returns in the long term.