Everyone's talking about digital transformation. But do you know what the success factors are for driving digital transformation?
The stakes are high for anyone who is involved in digital transformation – after all, studies estimate that 84% of companies fail to achieve digital transformation. If digital transformation is not achieved, instead of going from “good to great”, companies run the risk of going from “good to gone”. This is why even as early as 2010, the Singapore Government has been encouraging companies to transform their businesses in order to stay relevant and competitive.
With the pace of change that is fast and getting faster, and at a scale that has not been seen previously, there is urgency to get digital transformation right as product categories and industries are being disrupted “right, left and centre”. The products, policies, business models, assets that have made companies successful in the past are now turning into barriers for change and digital transformation.
Most conversations about digital transformation are about IT. In fact, the goal should not be anchored on IT. Rather, it should be anchored on what problem you want to solve. In today’s context, the goal of digital transformation can mean different things to different people. To the HR manager, it could refer to improving employee engagement. To the marketing head, it could mean lead generation. And to the operations manager, digital transformation could be defined as improving the contribution margin.
There are also success factors to consider. One critical success factor is people. In general, people do not like change and they resist it. Investments need to be made for people to understand the reason for the digital transformation. People must also be trained so that they are able to adapt to the new ways of working for the transformation to be successful. A shift in mindset is also required – which is why a robust communication strategy needs to be put in place to align people to the goal of the digital transformation strategy.
One of the biggest misconceptions about digital transformation is that – it is expensive, labour intensive and it is something that only big companies can afford to implement. Smaller companies can also get on the bandwagon by starting small. For example, in an effort to improve collaboration, your organisation could adopt collaborative tools such as Google Drive or Microsoft Teams for the different teams to share information, communicate better and work on common projects.
In my corporate experience, I have had the opportunity to lead and participate in several digital transformations. One project that I led – was to put in place a customer relationship management for effective sales and marketing management at Dell. Fundamental to the success of this digital transformation project was data. Data hygiene and analytics was critical for driving the company’s integrated sales and marketing go-to-market strategy for acquiring, developing and retaining customers. Considerable effort was placed to learn more about the customers’ specific issues so that customised wide-ranging and encompassing solutions could be provided to solve their “pain points”. That was how we approached every customer. We took a crawl-walk-run approach to building customer trust, thus, cultivating customer loyalty and relationships for life. Knowing the customer “intimately” and having great customer insights were the goals of the digital transformation strategy.
Driving digital transformation isn’t easy. But armed with the framework and tools, you can become a digital transformation leader and be a part of your organisation’s digital transformation journey.
by DR JOVINA ANG
SMU Adjunct Faculty
SMU Academy’s Success Factors for Leading Digital Transformation gives you an integrated view, provides you with the knowledge and skills, as well as equips you with a proven approach for leading digital transformation.
